Memantine in Nociceptive Pain Management: A Case Report

BACKGROUND: Memantine is a N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonist that is prominently known as an Alzheimer’s disease medication. In recent years, it has started to receive attention for pain management purposes, especially for neuropathic pain. There has been little focus on its use for nociceptive pain. We present a case where the use of memantine for nociceptive pain in a patient yielded significant associated improvement. CASE REPORT: A 49-year-old man presented with a one-year history of severe nociceptive left neck pain subsequent to a whiplash injury. The patient failed multiple first-line therapies and pursued consults with multiple specialties without symptomatic improvement. He was put on memantine with subsequent sustained resolution of his nociceptive neck pain. CONCLUSIONS: Memantine’s optimal safety profile and effectiveness in this case make it important that more human patient research be conducted to further explore its efficacy for nociceptive pain. KEY WORDS: Nociceptive pain, memantine, inflammation, chronic pain, case report