Improvement in fatigue and sleep measures with the dual orexin receptor antagonist lemborexant in adults with insomnia disorder
Craig Chepke, Rakesh Jain, Russell Rosenberg, Margaret Moline, Jane Yardley, Kate Pinner, Dinesh Kumar, Carlos Perdomo, Gleb Filippov, Norman Atkins, Manoj Malhotra
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: Fatigue is a common symptom in patients with insomnia. This analysis evaluated whether treatment of nighttime symptoms of insomnia with a dual orexin receptor antagonist, lemborexant, might also reduce fatigue. METHODS: Analyses were conducted of two phase 3 studies of subjects with insomnia disorder. Subjects received placebo, lemborexant 5 mg, or lemborexant 10 mg in the 12-month (6 months placebo-controlled) Study E2006-G000-303 (Study 303: SUNRISE-2) of adults (N = 949; full analysis set [FAS]), and the 1-month, placebo- and active-controlled Study E2006-G000-304 (Study 304; SUNRISE-1) of older adults (females ≥55 years, males ≥65 years) (N = 1006; FAS). Fatigue was assessed using the Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS). Patient-reported sleep onset and maintenance endpoints were analyzed using data from electronic sleep diaries. RESULTS: < 0.05 for both). This reduction was sustained over 12 months of lemborexant in both the overall population and in subjects with clinically meaningful fatigue (FSS total score ≥36) at baseline. Improvements in fatigue over time positively correlated with improvements in sleep onset and maintenance parameters. Improvements in sleep quality were evident as early as 1 week after lemborexant treatment, whereas longer-term treatment (>1 month) may be needed for improvements in insomnia-related fatigue. CONCLUSIONS: In addition to improving sleep onset and sleep maintenance in subjects with insomnia disorder, lemborexant provides further benefit by reducing daytime fatigue. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02952820 and https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02783729. ABBREVIATIONS: ; LSM = least squares mean; sSE = subjective sleep efficiency; sSOL = subjective sleep onset latency; sTST = subjective total sleep time; sWASO = subjective sleep after wake onset.