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CompletedNCT00049803Updated Jun 24, 2005

Safety and Efficacy of Xyrem Oral Solution (Sodium Oxybate) Compared With Placebo in Narcoleptic Patients

A Phase 3 interventional study of sodium oxybate in Narcolepsy, sponsored by Orphan Medical. Completed at 45 sites in 3 countries. Open to participants aged 16 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2005-06-24.

Sponsored by Orphan Medical · Phase 3, Interventional, and Treatment

Phase
Phase 3
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
200
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
16 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

The initial portion of the protocol involves discontinuing any medications for cataplexy that the patient may be taking. Subsequently, the patient is prescribed a dose of oral solution of study drug or placebo over a 10-11 week period. During the trial, narcolepsy symptoms will be evaluated. Participants are allowed to continue using stimulant medications at constant doses during the study. A total of 1 to 3 daytime visits in addition to 4 overnight visits to the sleep center will be required to complete the study.

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Conditions studied

  • Narcolepsy

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Keywords

  • Narcolepsy
  • Sodium Oxybate
  • Cataplexy
  • Excessive Daytime Sleepiness
  • GHB
  • Gamma Hydroxybutyric Acid
  • Orphan Medical
  • Orphan Drug
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In context

Narcolepsy

149 studies on the registry are indexed under Narcolepsy; 33 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 200 is above the median of 71 across 110 interventional studies indexed under Narcolepsy.

Browse Narcolepsy studies →

Lead sponsor

Orphan Medical is the lead sponsor of 2 studies on the registry; none are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

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Who can participate

Ages eligible
16 Years and older
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

  • Have signed \& dated informed consent before beginning protocol procedures.
  • Willing \& able to complete entire trial as described in protocol.
  • 16 years of age or older.
  • Have a history and presenting symptoms of excessive daytime sleepiness.
  • Have a history of cataplexy localizable to a specific muscle group(s) or part(s) of body during which the patient is lucid (not experiencing an inadvertent nap or micro sleep).
  • Have valid PSG \& MSLT scores (collected during an overnight test) within last five years and a current diagnosis of narcolepsy according to the following criteria established by the American Sleep Disorders Association: (1) Recurrent daytime naps or lapses into sleep occur almost daily for at least 3 months; (2) Sudden bilateral loss of postural muscle tone occurs in association with intense emotion (cataplexy); (3) Polysomnography demonstrates one or more of the following: (a) Sleep latency less than 10 minutes; (b) REM sleep latency less than 20 minutes; (c) An MSLT that demonstrates a mean sleep latency of less than 5 minutes; (d) Two or more sleep-onset REM periods
  • Females who are surgically sterile, two years post-menopausal, or if of child-bearing potential, using a medically accepted method of birth control and agree to continue use of this method for the duration of the trial.
  • In the opinion of the investigator, have adequate support for the duration of trial to include transportation to and from trial site. In addition, if in the investigator's assessment it is clinically indicated, the patient is willing to not operate a car or heavy machinery for the duration of the trial or for as long as the investigator deems clinically indicated.

Exclusion criteria

EXCLUSION CRITERIA

  • Received gamma-hydroxybutyrate in the last 30 days.
  • Have taken any investigational therapy within 30-day period prior to initial screening visit for this trial.
  • Patients taking fluoxetine (Prozac).
  • Have been diagnosed with sleep apnea syndrome, defined as an Apnea Index > 10 per hour or an Apnea Hypopnea Index greater than 15 per hour, or have any other cause of daytime sleepiness, and have any other disorder(s) that can be considered a primary cause of excessive daytime sleepiness.
  • Taking hypnotics, tranquilizers, antihistamines (except for non-sedating antihistamines), benzodiazepines or clonidine at the start of the baseline period. Patients taking anticonvulsants are not eligible to participate even if willing to washout anticonvulsants for the trial.
  • Experiencing unstable cardiovascular, endocrine, neoplastic (excluding localized basal cell carcinoma), gastrointestinal, hematologic, hepatic, immunologic, metabolic, neurological (other than narcolepsy/cataplexy), pulmonary, and/or renal disease which would place the patient at risk during the trial or compromise objectives outlined in the protocol.
  • Have psychiatric disorders, major affective or psychotic disorders, or other problems that, in the investigator's opinion, would preclude the patient's participation and completion of this trial or compromise reliable representation of subjective symptoms.
  • Have current or recent (within one year) history of a substance use disorder including alcohol abuse as defined by DSM-IV.
  • Serum creatinine greater than 2.0 mg/dL, abnormal liver function tests (SGOT [AST] or SGPT [ALT] more than twice the upper limit of normal), or elevated serum bilirubin (more than 1.5 times upper limit of normal), or pre-trial ECG results demonstrating clinically significant arrhythmias, greater than a first degree AV block or a history of myocardial infarction within last six months.
  • Have an occupation that requires variable shift work or routine night shift.
  • Have a clinically significant history of seizure disorder, a history of clinically significant head trauma (i.e., concussion resulting in clinically significant loss of consciousness) or past invasive intracranial surgery, and are taking anticonvulsant medications.
05

Study design

Phase
Phase 3
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Double
Enrollment
200 participants

Interventions

  • Drugsodium oxybate
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Study locations

45 sites
  • Sleep Disorders Center of Alabama, Inc.
    Birmingham, Alabama 35213, United States
  • Pacific Sleep Medicine Services
    La Jolla, California 92037-1205, United States
  • Stanford Sleep Disorders Clinic
    Stanford, California 94305, United States
  • St. Petersburg Sleep Disorders Center
    St. Petersburg, Florida 33707, United States
  • Sleep Disorders Center of Georgia
    Atlanta, Georgia 30342, United States
  • Sleep Disorders Center--Division of Neurology
    Evanston, Illinois 60201, United States
  • Peoria Pulmonary Associates, Ltd.
    Peoria, Illinois 61603, United States
  • The Center for Sleep and Wake Disorders/Midwest Neurology
    Danville, Indiana 46122, United States
  • Fort Wayne Neurological Center
    Fort Wayne, Indiana 46804, United States
  • Fort Wayne Neurological Center
    Fort Wayne, Indiana 46805, United States
  • Chest Medicine Associates DBA/Sleep Medicine Specialists
    Louisville, Kentucky 40217, United States
  • LSU Health Science Center
    Shreveport, Louisiana 71130, United States
  • Center for Sleep and Wake Disorders
    Chevy Chase, Maryland 20815, United States
  • Center for Sleep Diagnostics
    Newton, Massachusetts 02459, United States
  • Department of Neurology
    Worcester, Massachusetts 01608, United States
  • Washington University -- Sleep Medicine Center
    Saint Louis, Missouri 63108, United States
  • Sleep/Wake Center 7N2 -- Bellevue Hospital Center
    New York, New York 10016, United States
  • The Sleep Center - Community General Hospital
    Syracuse, New York 13215, United States
  • Duke University Medical Center
    Durham, North Carolina 27710, United States
  • Raleigh Neurology Associates
    Raleigh, North Carolina 27607, United States
  • Central Carolina Neurology & Sleep
    Salisbury, North Carolina 28144, United States
  • CSC Research -- Grove City Sleep Diagnostic Center
    Grove City, Ohio 43123, United States
  • Southwest Cleveland Sleep Center
    Middleburg Heights, Ohio 44130, United States
  • Lynn Health Science Institute
    Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73112, United States
  • Clinical Pharmaceutical Trials, Inc.
    Tulsa, Oklahoma 74104, United States
  • Rhode Island Hospital - Division of Pulmonary, Sleep and Critical Care Medicine
    Providence, Rhode Island 02903, United States
  • Miriam Hospital
    Providence, Rhode Island 02906, United States
  • Charleston Pulmonary Associates PA
    Charleston, South Carolina 29403, United States
  • Low Country Lung and Critical Care PA
    Charleston, South Carolina 29406-7108, United States
  • Palmetto Baptist Medical Center Sleep Disorders Center
    Columbia, South Carolina 29201, United States
  • Charleston Pulmonary Associates PA
    Mount Pleasant, South Carolina 29464, United States
  • Sleep Medicine Assoc PLLC -- Summit Medical Center
    Hermitage, Tennessee 37076, United States
  • The Houston Sleep Center
    Houston, Texas 77024, United States
  • Sleep Medicine Associates of Texas
    Plano, Texas 75093, United States
  • Sleep Disorders Center -- Eastern Virginia Medical School -- Sentara General Hospital
    Norfolk, Virginia 23507, United States
  • VCU Health System MCV Hospitals - Sleep Disorders Center
    Richmond, Virginia 23235, United States
  • Swedish Sleep Medicine Institute
    Seattle, Washington 98122, United States
  • Canadian Sleep Institute
    Calgary, Alberta T2X2A8, Canada
  • Vancouver Hospital -- Sleep Disorders Clinic
    Vancouver, British Columbia V6T2B5, Canada
  • Saint John Regional Hospital -- Somnology Program
    Saint John, New Brunswick E2L4L2, Canada
  • The Ottawa Hospital Sleep Centre -- Ottawa Hospital -- Civic Campus -- Sleep Laboratory
    Ottawa, Ontario K1Y 4E9, Canada
  • The Sleep Disorders Clinic of the Centre for Sleep and Chronobiology
    Toronto, Ontario M5T 3A9, Canada
  • Brain & Sleep Diagnostic Center
    Toronto, Ontario M8X2W2, Canada
  • Sleep Disorder Centre -- Hopital du Sacre-Coeur
    Montreal, Quebec H4J1C5, Canada
  • Neurologische Poliklinik - Universitats Spital Zurich
    Zurich, CH-8091, Switzerland
07

References and documents

Publications

  • A randomized, double blind, placebo-controlled multicenter trial comparing the effects of three doses of orally administered sodium oxybate with placebo for the treatment of narcolepsy. Sleep. 2002 Feb 1;25(1):42-9. PubMed 11833860 ↗
  • Scrima L, Hartman PG, Johnson FH Jr, Thomas EE, Hiller FC. The effects of gamma-hydroxybutyrate on the sleep of narcolepsy patients: a double-blind study. Sleep. 1990 Dec;13(6):479-90. doi: 10.1093/sleep/13.6.479. PubMed 2281247 ↗
  • Lammers GJ, Arends J, Declerck AC, Ferrari MD, Schouwink G, Troost J. Gammahydroxybutyrate and narcolepsy: a double-blind placebo-controlled study. Sleep. 1993 Apr;16(3):216-20. doi: 10.1093/sleep/16.3.216. PubMed 8506453 ↗
  • A 12-month, open-label, multicenter extension trial of orally administered sodium oxybate for the treatment of narcolepsy. Sleep. 2003 Feb 1;26(1):31-5. PubMed 12627729 ↗
  • Husain AM, Bujanover S, Ryan R, Scheckner B, Black J, Profant J. Incidence and duration of common, early-onset adverse events occurring during 2 randomized, placebo-controlled, phase 3 studies of sodium oxybate in participants with narcolepsy. J Clin Sleep Med. 2020 Sep 15;16(9):1469-1474. doi: 10.5664/jcsm.8530. PubMed 32356515 ↗
  • Roth T, Dauvilliers Y, Guinta D, Alvarez-Horine S, Dynin E, Black J. Effect of sodium oxybate on disrupted nighttime sleep in patients with narcolepsy. J Sleep Res. 2017 Aug;26(4):407-414. doi: 10.1111/jsr.12468. Epub 2016 Nov 3. PubMed 27807903 ↗
  • Bogan R, Swick T, Mamelak M, Kovacevic-Ristanovic R, Lai C, Black J, Villa KF, Montplaisir J. Evaluation of Quality of Life in Patients With Narcolepsy Treated With Sodium Oxybate: Use of the 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey in a Clinical Trial. Neurol Ther. 2016 Dec;5(2):203-213. doi: 10.1007/s40120-016-0053-5. Epub 2016 Oct 24. PubMed 27778193 ↗
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Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Jun 24, 2005, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
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Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT00049803
Lead sponsor
Orphan Medical
First posted
Nov 15, 2002
Start date
Dec 2000
Completion
Apr 2004
Last update
Jun 24, 2005

Study contacts

William Houghton, MD
study chair · Orphan Medical
Harry N Cook, MBA, RPh
study director · Orphan Medical
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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