Sir.—While doing a literature search on the drug amantadine, I came across an anecdotal Letter to the Editor of the Medical Journal of Australia by Dr Gordon White. Dr White reported treating a male infant with classic Down syndrome with graduated doses of amantadine for "prevention of respiratory complications, particularly those due to A2 influenza virus."1 Dr White claimed that during treatment with amantadine, which began when the infant was 2 weeks old and continued until age 9 months (at which time Dr White wrote his letter), the child had "developed according to the accepted mental-age milestones. On days that the child was not given amantadine, there was a loss in muscle tone, increased floppiness, excessive drooling at the mouth, etc."1 Despite this intriguing observation, there have been no further reports in the medical literature of use of amantadine in Down syndrome. However, the possibility that