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Treatment of Meniere's Disease With Migraine Medications

Treatment of Meniere's Disease With Nortriptyline-Topiramate Stepwise Regimen: A Randomized Double-Blinded Clinical Trial

Status
Recruiting
Phases
Phase 4
Study type
Interventional
Source
ClinicalTrials.gov
Registry ID
NCT05582837
Enrollment
40
Registered
2022-10-17
Start date
2022-08-01
Completion date
2027-12-30
Last updated
2026-06-22

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

Conditions

Ménière

Keywords

Meniere's Disease, medication, randomized, trial, migraine

Brief summary

Meniere's disease (MD) is a chronic disease with a variety of fluctuating signs and symptoms, which include vertigo, hearing loss, tinnitus (ringing noise in the ear), aural pressure (feeling of ear fullness), and disequilibrium (lack of stability). Vertigo represents one of the most common and distressing problems in MD patients, and it causes various somatic and psychological disorders that interfere with the patient's quality of life. Despite the large economic and emotional impact of symptoms in MD patients, there is no FDA-approved medication to treat this debilitating condition. As such, our objective in this study is to evaluate the therapeutic potential of novel medications in treating MD that have previously shown astonishing promise in our clinical practice.

Detailed description

This study is 8 weeks in duration. There are two arms in the experiment: the first is nortriptyline (7.5 mg) plus topiramate (10 mg), the second is hydrochlorothiazide (25 mg) plus triamterene (37.5 mg) with placebo being added in case of a dosage increase. This is a double-blinded trial. Participants will be randomized to one arm for the duration of the trial using simple randomization with a computer-generated number. Both groups may receive dosage increases weekly if symptoms do not improve. Symptomatic survey scores from each arm will be obtained before and after treatment and weekly. An unblinded clinical researcher will also become involved with patients' treatments as they start to report changes in symptoms in order to monitor their safety and provide advice on change in dosage if patients have questions.

Interventions

nortriptyline (7.5mg) + topiramate (10mg) taken 1x per day and escalate weekly as needed for 8 weeks

Sponsors

University of California, Irvine
Lead SponsorOTHER

Study design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
TRIPLE (Subject, Investigator, Outcomes Assessor)

Masking description

No masking: care provider

Intervention model description

Participants will be assigned to a study group by chance (like a coin flip) rather than by a medical decision made by the researchers. There are two arms in the study (treatment group which consists of nortriptyline + topiramate, control group which consist of hydrochlorothiazide plus triamterene with placebo), and participants enrolling in the trial will be randomly assigned in a 1:1 fashion to one of the arms. The participant will remain in the same arm for the duration of the study (8 weeks). There may be multiple participants in each arm who are undergoing the study at the same time (parallel model).

Eligibility

Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
25 Years to 85 Years
Healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

1. Patients with active or frequent Meniere's Disease. 2. Male or female between the ages of 25 to 85 years. 3. Subject must be compliant with the medication and attend study visits. 4. Must be able to read and write in the English language to provide consenting.

Exclusion criteria

1. Pregnancy will result in automatic exclusion from the study. A urine pregnancy test to rule out pregnancy for all women who are of childbearing potential. 2. Subjects with history of surgery for Meniere's Disease. 3. Subject with history of an adverse reaction to medication being prescribed. 4. Subject suffers from a medical condition or has history that may be concerning to the investigator's clinical opinion. 5. Subjects with psychosis. 6. Subjects with neurological neoplasm. 7. All contraindications for the medications which prevent subjects from randomization will be considered as

Design outcomes

Primary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Subjective improvement of Meniere's Disease8 weeksThe primary outcome variable is derived from the validated Meniere's Disease Outcome Questionnaire (MDOQ) with 18 multiple-choice questions to compare quality of life before and after treatment. The question multiple choices are rated on a scale from 0 to 4 where the higher score indicates the higher quality of life. For each patient, the sum of his/her answers is divided (and x100) by the maximum possible scores for the pre-treatment questions and the post-treatment questions, separately. The outcome measure is the absolute change from pre- to post-treatment scores. Two-sample t test will be used to compare the outcome variable between the two treatment groups.

Secondary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Visual analog scale (VAS)8 weeksSubjective improvement in tinnitus loudness severity based on a visual analog scale (VAS). The VAS is scored from 0 to 10, with a higher score representing an increased severity of tinnitus.
Perceived Stress Scale (PSS)8 weeksSubjective improvement in stress based on perceived stress scale (PSS). The PSS is scored from 0 to 40, with higher scores indicating higher perceived stress.
Sleep Quality Index (SQI)8 weeksSubjective improvement in sleep quality based on sleep quality index (SQI). The SQI is scored from 0 to 21, with higher scores indicating worse quality of sleep.
Dizziness handicap index (DHI)8 weeksSubjective improvement in dizziness handicap index (DHI). There is a maximum score of 100 (28 points for physical, 36 points for emotional and 36 points for functional) and a minimum score of 0. The higher the score, the greater the perceived handicap due to dizziness.
Tinnitus Functional Index (TFI)8 weeksSubjective improvement from baseline in tinnitus symptoms as measured by Tinnitus Functional Index (TFI). The TFI is scored from 0% to 100%, with higher scores indicating a more negative impact of tinnitus.
Meniere's Disease Outcomes Questionnaire (MDOQ)8 weeksSubjective improvement in Meniere's Disease Outcomes Questionnaire (MDOQ). To measure the quality of life in patients with Ménière's disease and to assess quality-of-life outcomes.
Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ)8 weeksSubjective improvement in depression symptoms based on patient health questionnaire (PHQ). The PHQ is scored from 0 to 27, with a higher score indicating increased depression severity.

Countries

United States

Contacts

CONTACTHamid R Djalilian
hdjalili@hs.uci.edu(800) 263-9547
CONTACTMehdi Abouzari
mabouzar@hs.uci.edu(714) 509-6096
PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATORHamid Djalilian, MD

University of California, Irvine

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Jun 23, 2026