Zolpidem CR and Hospitalized Patients With Dementia

Not Applicable

Completed

Conditions: Alzheimer Disease
Sleep Disorders
Circadian Dysregulation
Dementia
Dementia, Vascular

Interventions: Drug: Zolpidem CR
Drug: Placebo

Registration Number: NCT00814502

Lead Sponsor: Massachusetts General Hospital

Brief Summary: The purpose of this research study is to compare the effectiveness of Zolpidem CR to that of placebo in improving sleep efficiency in people with dementia admitted to the hospital because of their symptoms. You can participate in this study if you have dementia of the Alzheimer's type or vascular dementia. This study involves placebo; a placebo is a tablet that looks exactly like Zolpidem CR, the study drug, but contains no active study drug. We will use placebos to see if the study results are due to the study drug or due to other reasons. Zolpidem CR is also called Ambien CR and is widely available by prescription. Zolpidem CR is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the short-term treatment of insomnia (trouble falling or staying asleep).

Detailed Description: Sleep patterns normally change with age. Sleep/wake cycles appear to be compromised in people suffering from dementia. Most research involving sleep in dementia has involved community dwelling or nursing home residents. Relatively little is known about the sleep patterns of patients with dementia who develop acute behavioral and psychiatric symptoms and necessitate hospitalization. The relationship between sleep disturbances in these patients and behavioral/psychiatric symptoms is also insufficiently studied. The current study will examine these two sets of data (sleep/wake cycles and clinical symptoms) in a population of elderly subjects with Dementia of the Alzheimer's type (DAT) or vascular dementia (VD) during their hospitalization period. We will compare the sleep outcome measures (primarily sleep efficiency) and clinical outcome measures in subjects treated with Zolpidem CR or Placebo. We will utilize a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled design to test our hypothesis that targeting sleep disturbances in hospitalized elderly subjects with DAT or VD leads to improvement in sleep and clinical outcomes.

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status: COMPLETED

Sex: All

Target Recruitment: 20

Inclusion Criteria

Age between 60-99 years
Clinical diagnosis of Dementia of the Alzheimer's type or Vascular Dementia
Only subjects with Mini Mental Status Examination scores of greater or equal to 10 will be enrolled.

Exclusion Criteria

Subjects who are too agitated to be able to wear the activity monitors;
Subjects who are actively suicidal or homicidal or for whom the clinical treatment team considers participation in the study to be unsuitable;
Subjects with untreated primary sleep disorders;
Subjects who receive hypnotic medications during their participation in the study; Subjects who received hypnotic medications prior to enrollment may participate in the study if they agree to stop receiving hypnotic medications (with their attending physician's approval);
Subjects who are receiving over the counter sleep aids;
Subjects who can not commit to abstaining from alcohol use while in the study;
Subjects with known anaphylactic reaction or angioedema with Zolpidem CR.

Study & Design

Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL

Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Zolpidem CR	Zolpidem CR	Subjects randomized to Zolpidem CR
Placebo	Placebo	Subjects randomized to Placebo

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Sleep Efficiency	Post-intervention, up to 3 weeks	Sleep efficiency during the down interval. The down interval signifies the period of time (in minutes) at night when subjects are in bed and trying to sleep. Sleep efficiency is calculated as (100\*sleep minutes)/\[time interval from sleep onset (as defined by the sleep latency) to sleep offset (the end of the last sleep episode in the Down interval)\]. The time period was different for each patient, it was their duration of hospitalization. The first 48 hours patients were not on the study drug, so the reported least squares mean is an estimate of the mean for the subsequent time period where the patients received different therapies. These means are corrected for differences that might have existed during the first 48 hours. The results would be similar to the results attained from considering the mean during the first 48 hours as a baseline covariate in an Analysis of Covariance, but would be more robust to missing data.
Sleep Minutes	post-intervention, up to 3 weeks	Total sleep minutes during the down period. The down interval signifies the period of time (in minutes) at night when subjects are in bed and trying to sleep. The time period was different for each patient, it was their duration of hospitalization. The first 48 hours patients were not on the study drug, so the reported least squares mean is an estimate of the mean for the subsequent time period where the patients received different therapies. These means are corrected for differences that might have existed during the first 48 hours. The results would be similar to the results attained from considering the mean during the first 48 hours as a baseline covariate in an Analysis of Covariance, but would be more robust to missing data.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Measures of Aggression, Psychosis, General Clinical Status, Cognitive Measures, Mood Symptoms	post-intervention, up to 3 weeks	Rating Scale for Aggressive Behavior in the Elderly (RAGE, 0-61); higher is worse. Disruptive Behavior Rating Scales (DBRS, 0-105); higher is worse. Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI, 0-144) - measures 12 different domains of neuropsychiatric symptoms such as delusions, hallucinations, anxiety, depression, apathy, etc.; higher is worse. Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS, 0-90); higher is worse. Mini-mental state examination (MMSE, 0-30); higher is better. The time period was different for each patient, it was their duration of hospitalization. The first 48 hours patients were not on the study drug, so the reported least squares mean is an estimate of the mean for the subsequent time period where the patients received different therapies. These means are corrected for differences that might have existed during the first 48 hours. The results would be similar to the results attained from considering the mean during the firs