The Efficacy of Suvorexant in Treatment of Patients With Substance Use Disorder and Insomnia: A Pilot Open Trial

Summary

Insomnia is an extremely common and poorly treated problem in patients with substance use disorders (SUD)s undergoing rehabilitation treatment in a residential facility. The persistence of insomnia in substance use disorders (SUDs) may be associated with tonic levels of drug craving. Insomnia and craving can predispose to relapse in patients with SUDs. Insomnia and SUDs are independently associated with increased cortisol indicating physiological dysregulation of the stress response system including the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Hence sleep disturbance, craving and increased cortisol leads to relapse in SUD subjects. Suvorexant, an orexin 1 / 2 receptor antagonist, approved by the FDA for the treatment of sleep disturbance in subjects with primary Insomnia. Previous animal studies report Orexin 1 receptor antagonist decreases craving and normal the HPA axis. However, the efficacy of suvorexant on sleep and craving in SUD subjects is not known. The primary aims of this study are- 1. To determine if suvorexant will improve sleep quality (increased total sleep time, fewer awakenings), as measured through wrist actigraphy and the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) in SUDs. 2. To assess whether or not SUDs patients treated with suvorexant endorse scale items on a modified abuse liability assessment battery. 3. To determine if daily reports of mood, stress, craving and sleep using Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA data) change during the course of the study as patients with SUDs are treated with suvorexant. 4. To determine if patients taking suvorexant will have a decrease in total daily salivary cortisol over the course of the study by collecting samples at five time points in a day, for two consecutive days at two different times in the study.

Timeline

Start

2019-07-01

Primary completion

2023-01-07

Completion

2023-01-07

Publications

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