Conditions: Panic Disorder Insomnia
Keywords: insomnia sleep difficulty panic disorder nocturnal panic attacks anxiety
Allocation: RANDOMIZED | Intervention model: PARALLEL
Enrollment: 11
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
Almost 80% of panic disorder patients report difficulty sleeping. Sleep disturbances in turn may exacerbate underlying anxiety/panic attacks. Moreover, individuals with insomnia (sleep disturbance) are at higher risk of developing a new anxiety disorder. Therefore it is expected that improving sleep quality with medications along with other medications to treat anxiety component of panic disorder might be helpful. However, there is lack of pharmacological studies examining the effects of improving sleep disturbances with medications in panic disorder patients, which is a critical problem for providing optimal care to these patients. The objective of this proposal is to determine the effects of ramelteon (FDA approved for insomnia) on sleep disturbances in Panic disorder patients who are on escitalopram for underlying anxiety.

Detailed description:

Arms:
arm 1: Subjects will be randomly assigned to receive either Ramelteon and Escitalopram OR Placebo and Escitalopram. arm 2: Subjects will be randomly assigned to receive either Ramelteon and Escitalopram OR Placebo and Escitalopram.

Interventions: intervention 1: Placebo and Escitalopram intervention 2: Ramelteon and Escitalopram
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: Placebo and Escitalopram (5 to 40 mg) intervention 2: Ramelteon 8 mg and Escitalopram (5-40 mg)

Protocol document: