ClinicalTrials.gg
Status unknownNCT00232570Updated May 5, 2009

Quetiapine for the Treatment of Insomnia in Alzheimer's Disease

An interventional study of quetiapine in Alzheimer's Disease and Insomnia, sponsored by University of Vermont. Status unknown at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 55 Years to 90 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2009-05-05.

Sponsored by University of Vermont · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment

The sponsor has not verified this record recently (last verified May 2009), so the status shown — last known as Recruiting — may be out of date.
Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
18
Allocation
Non-randomized
Ages
55 Years to 90 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

The primary hypothesis is that quetiapine will improve sleep in persons with Alzheimer's Disease (AD), with higher doses producing greater total sleep time and sleep efficiency.

Read the detailed description

Quetiapine is frequently used to treat psychosis in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other dementias. These patients commonly have sleep disturbances that include nighttime awakenings with confused, agitated behaviors. These awakenings impose a great challenge for caregivers, especially family caregivers whose own sleep is disrupted as a result of the patient's awakenings. Sleep disturbance can lead to nursing home placement3 and may add to cognitive impairment of patients.

There is no medication proven to be safe and effective in the treatment of sleep disorders in patients with dementia. Antipsychotic medications are often prescribed at bedtime in the hopes that they will aid sleep and reduce agitation and psychosis associated with these awakenings. Sleep disturbance is more common in AD patients with moderate to severe disease, and these patients are more likely to have psychosis and to be recruited from long-term care facilities. We recently conducted the only multicenter clinical trial of a drug for sleep disturbance in AD. The study, completed under the auspices of the NIA's Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study, investigated melatonin as a sedative-hypnotic agent for AD patients. We found melatonin to be of no benefit on objective measures, although there were positive trends in the data and a significant improvement on subjective measures (caregiver ratings of patients' sleep) in one of the melatonin groups relative to placebo. No other large trial in AD subjects has been reported in the literature for drugs with potential benefit for AD patients with sleep disturbances. There are several reasons why this population needs to be specifically studied. Patients with AD tend to have highly fragmented sleep, with many nocturnal awakenings. They have significant daytime sleepiness that might affect daytime cognitive function and behavior. These patients tend to be older, with sensitivity to drug side effects.

People with neurodegenerative diseases such as AD may respond differently to CNS-active medications. Finally, this population represents a large and growing cohort of patients that deserve individual study of their unique problems.

02

Conditions studied

  • Alzheimer's Disease
  • Insomnia

Keywords

  • sleep disturbance
  • dementia
03

In context

Alzheimer Disease

3,765 studies on the registry are indexed under Alzheimer Disease; 881 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 18 is below the median of 68 across 2,861 interventional studies indexed under Alzheimer Disease.

Browse Alzheimer Disease studies →

Lead sponsor

University of Vermont is the lead sponsor of 221 studies on the registry; 27 are open to participants now.

Of its 17 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 9 (53%) have results posted.

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

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
55 Years to 90 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  1. Age 55-90 years.
  2. Diagnosis of possible or probable AD as defined by NINCDS-ADRD criteria.
  3. Sleep disturbance defined by mean score of 3 on first six items of the SDI.
  4. Family member able to provide surrogate informed consent.
  5. Live-in caregiver able to monitor medication and serve as informant on questionnaires.
  6. Caregiver who is fluent in English.
  7. Be able to ingest oral tablets.
  8. Be able to avoid caffeinated and alcoholic beverages during the study period.
  9. A neuroimaging study at the time of initial diagnosis, or any time since that is consistent with AD and effectively rules out dementia related only to stroke, hydrocephalus or other neurological condition.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Medical disorders that may account for sleep disturbance, especially delirium, Major Depressive Disorder (DSMIV) and severe or significant acute or chronic pain.
  2. Have acute or unstable medical conditions including renal failure, abnormal liver function, cardiac arrhythmia, sitting blood pressure below 110/70 or above 140/100 or postural blood drop 20 mm Hg.
  3. Symptoms suggesting other sleep disorders (e.g., periodic limb movement disorder, restless legs syndrome, obstructive sleep apnea syndrome), may be present but in the opinion of the PI, do not account for the primary symptoms of insomnia.
  4. Sleep disturbance symptoms that suggest a parasomnia. Parasomnias may include behavioral manifestations of epileptiform activity or REM Behavior Disorder (RBD).
  5. Previous treatment failure with quetiapine of AD-associated sleep disturbances, or intolerance of quetiapine in a previous treatment trial.
  6. Concomitant treatment with another antipsychotic or sedative-hypnotic medication, including trazodone.
  7. Evidence of a major mental disorder other than dementia, such as major depression or schizophrenia.
  8. Stable doses (for 4 weeks prior to study entry) of antidepressant, antiepileptic mood stabilizer, or acetylcholinesterase inhibitor medication will be allowed, but initiation or recent changes in the dose of such medications will be prohibited.
  9. Benzodiazepines within 2 weeks of study entry will not be allowed.
05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Non-randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Single (Participant)
Enrollment
18 participants (estimated)

Interventions

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. The primary objective is to determine whether quetiapine can increase total sleep time and reduce time awake in patients with AD and sleep disturbance.

Secondary outcomes

  1. Dose-response relationship of quetiapine and sleep in AD patients?

  2. Are there sleep architecture changes from quetiapine?

  3. Do the primary sleep variables change relative to placebo at any weekly time or dose point?

  4. Are caregivers, blind to treatment status, able to detect changes in sleep quality in the patients for quetiapine relative to placebo?

  5. Does quetiapine used at single bedtime dosing for potential nighttime soporific effect have a measurable impact on neuropsychiatric symptoms other than insomnia?

07

Study locations

1 of 1 sites recruiting
  • Fletcher Allen Health Care-Clinical Neuroscience Research Unit
    Burlington, Vermont 05401, United States
    Recruiting
08

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on May 5, 2009, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
09

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT00232570
First posted
Oct 4, 2005
Start date
Nov 2005
Primary completion
Dec 2009 (estimated)
Completion
Jan 2010 (estimated)
Last update
May 5, 2009

Study contacts

Sally Ross-Nolan, M.S.
Contact
sally.nolan@vtmednet.org
802-847-9488
Francine Nanda, M.S.
Contact
francine.nanda@vtmednet.org
802-847-8436
Clifford Singer, M.D.
principal investigator · University of Vermont
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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This study is status unknown, as verified in May 2009. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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