A Feasibility Study of Ramelteon and Citicoline for Delirium in a General Inpatient Hospital Population

This will be a 5-day, non-randomized, open-label, consecutive case series of ramelteon treatment followed by a separate consecutive case series of citicoline treatment, both running in parallel with a non-randomized, observation-only, treatment as usual arm in hospitalized patients with delirium.

On the drug treatment arm, first five consecutive subjects meeting Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM)-5 criteria for delirium will be given ramelteon 8 mg daily at bedtime for 5 days. The next five consecutive patients will be given citicoline 250 mg daily at bedtime for 2 days, followed by 500 mg daily at bedtime for 3 days. Patients on the observation-only arm will be screened and followed similarly, except they will not be given any experimental drugs. All subjects will continue to receive standard medical care for delirium, including optimal medical treatment, psychotropic medications and consultations with specialty services as necessary.

The study is a small pilot to see if there is good feasibility, tolerability and a signal for delirium improvement efficacy with the two medications. The goal is to develop the ability to conduct delirium research at this institution and obtain some preliminary pilot data. These data will be used to design and obtain funding for future, larger research studies. the data from each medication will be examined to look for patterns suggesting that one may be preferable for further research. However, given the very small sample size, meaningful between-group statistical analyses are not possible.