Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry

We reported two cases of amantadine treatment in traumatic brain injury patients and reviewed the literature of amantadine treatment of those patients. Problems with short-term memory, attention, planning, problem solving, impulsivity, disinhibition, poor motivation, and other behavioral and cognitive deficit could occur following traumatic brain injury or other types of acquired brain injury. This report described results of amantadine using in two patients with this type of symptom profile. Patients received neuropsychiatric examination as well as BPRS and Barthel index. These patients were improved, respectively from 57 point to 82 point(case 1), from 85 to 94(case 2) in Barthel index, and from 66 point to 35 point(case 1), from 55 to 32 point(case 2) in BPRS. These two patients did not reveal any other adverse effect. The rationale for using amantadine were discussed.

Keywords Amantadine;Traumatic brain injury(TBI);Dopamine agonist;NMDA receptor antagonist.