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DexmedetOmidine Complement Treats Chronic insOmnia and Improves Circadian Rhythm (DOCTOR)

The Effect of Dexmedetomidine on Patients With Chronic Insomnia and Its Influence on Circadian Rhythm:Randomized Clinical Trial, Double Blind

Status
Completed
Phases
NA
Study type
Interventional
Source
ClinicalTrials.gov
Registry ID
NCT04635098
Acronym
DOCTOR
Enrollment
64
Registered
2020-11-18
Start date
2021-05-14
Completion date
2024-03-07
Last updated
2025-01-15

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Chronic Insomnia

Keywords

Chronic insomnia, Dexmedetomidine, Circadian Rhythm, Sleep monitoring, Brain functional connectivity

Brief summary

It has been reported that dexmedetomidine, alpha-2 adrenoceptor agonist, can activate endogenous neural sleep pathways in the central nervous system. This randomised, double-blinded and controlled trial was designed to investigate whether dexmedetomidine can improve/treat chronic insomnia patients. Its effects on sleep quality and improvement, EEG and circadian rhythm, brain connectivity, cognition and biomarker changes are determined.

Detailed description

Insomnia is a common sleep disorder characterized by difficulty in starting or maintaining sleep, or poor sleep quality and shortened sleep time. The prevalence of insomnia is about 10-20% of population worldwide; Of which about approximately 50% are chronic. Insomnia is a risk factor for cognitive impairment and mental disorder development, and other diseases. Non-pharmacological interventions, e.g. physio-therapy, are often ineffective. Benzodiazepines and their derivatives are commonly prescribed for those patients but their side effects and long-time residual sleepy actions are very risky. Dexmedetomidine is a highly selective α2 adrenergic receptor agonist with sedative, analgesic and anti-anxiety effects together with remarkable cytoprotective effects. It is widely used as a sedative. Dexmedetomidine was reported promote sleep. It can also modulate clock protein expression and hence afford a regulatory effects on the circadian rhythm. This randomised, double-blinded and controlled trial was designed to investigate whether dexmedetomidine can treat chronic insomnia patients. Its effects on sleep quality and improvement, EEG and circadian rhythm, brain connectivity, cognition and biomarker changes are determined. All participants are randomly assigned to receive either dexmedetomidine (a 0.5μg/kg bolus injection for 10 minutes followed by 0.1µg/kg/hr) or placebo (normal saline infusion with an identical protocol as Dex) for 8 hrs from 10pm to 6 am.

Interventions

DRUGdexmedetomidine

All participants will be randomly assigned to receive either dexmedetomidine or saline

DRUGsaline

All participants will be randomly assigned to receive either dexmedetomidine or saline

Sponsors

Ruijin Hospital
Lead SponsorOTHER

Study design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
DOUBLE (Subject, Investigator)

Eligibility

Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to 65 Years
Healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

* Age between 18- 65 years old * Body mass index (BMI) between 18 and 35 kg/m\^2; * Clinical diagnosis of chronic insomnia; * Must be able to communicate with site personnel

Exclusion criteria

* Clinical diagnosis of mental disorders; * Pregnancy; * Current use of psychotropic drug ; * Clinical diagnosis of neurological diseases

Design outcomes

Primary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Sleep efficiencySeven hours from day 0 23:30 to day 1 06:30measured by polysomnography, Effective sleep time (the sum of non-rapid Eye movement sleep and rapid eye movement sleep time) as a percentage of the monitoring time. Monitoring time is eight hours

Secondary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Brain functional connectivitySeven hours from day 0 23:30 to day 1 06:30According to the collected scalp EEG frequency domain and time domain data, the coherence method is used to measure the phase synchronization degree of different brain regions
Interleukin-6(IL-6)Day 0,Day 1cytokines,Collected from blood
Brain-derived neurotrophic factor(BDNF)Day 0,Day 1Collected from blood
N2 sleep time percentageSeven hours from day 0 23:30 to day 1 06:30measured by polysomnography,N2 sleep time as a percentage of total monitoring time. Monitoring time is eight hours
Deep brain functional connectivityDay 0 before 22:00 , Day 3we will analysis the brain connection network according to the functional magnetic resonance imaging nonlinear Granger predictive analysis (Granger causality analysis, GCA) method
CortisolDay 0,Day 1Collected from blood
Proteomic analysisDay 0Due to some patients having a good response to Dex treatment, while others had rather limited efficacy, we further investigated the proteomic differences in peripheral blood between effective and ineffective patients before their treatment.Screening differential proteins between two groups in the protein database through proteomic analysis results in peripheral blood samples
BMAL1Day 0,Day 1sleep protein , Collected from blood lymphocytes
ArousalSeven hours from day 0 23:30 to day 1 06:30measured by polysomnography including arousal \> 15 sec(times), micro arousal(times) and wake duration after sleep onset(min).These indicators are used to evaluate the number of awakenings during sleep and the total duration of awakenings.
Sleep diary (sleep duration,sleep latency,arousal)Day 1,Day 2,Day 3,Day 4,Day 5,Day 6,Day 7for one week after treatment recorded by the subjects themselves
Pittsburgh Sleep Quality IndexDay0,Day7Scale to assess sleep quality,the lower the score, the better the sleep quality.The minimum value is 0 points, and the maximum value is 21 points.
Insomnia severity indexDay0,Day7Scale to assess severity of insomnia,the higher the score, the more severe the insomnia will be.The minimum value is 0 points, and the maximum value is 28 points.
Epworth sleeping scaleDay0,Day7A scale for evaluating daytime sleepiness, with higher scores indicating greater daytime sleepiness in subjects.The minimum value is 0 points, and the maximum value is 24 points.
Hamilton anxiety scaleDay0,Day7A scale for assessing anxiety levels, where the higher the score, the more anxious the subject is.daytime sleepiness in subjects.The minimum value is 0 points, and the maximum value is 56 points.
Hamilton depression scaleDay0,Day7A scale for assessing the degree of depression, with higher scores indicating greater depression among participants. 0-7 points: No depressive symptoms or normal level; 8-13 points: Mild depressive symptoms; 14-18 points: moderate depressive symptoms; 19-22 points: symptoms of moderate to severe depression; 23 points or above: severe depressive symptoms.
Sleep latencySeven hours from day 0 23:30 to day 1 06:30measured by polysomnography,the time required from getting ready to go to bed to actually falling asleep

Countries

China

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Feb 4, 2026