Repository logo
 

Sleepwalking Associated With Clozapine Treatment: 2 Cases.

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

No Thumbnail Available

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Fernandez-Egea, Emilio 

Abstract

Somnambulism or sleepwalking (SW) is a sleep-related behavioural disorder characterized by complex movements or behaviours occurring whilst asleep. It typically occurs during non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep and is thought to be an issue with the regulation of arousal states during slow-wave sleep. Up to twenty-nive drugs have been associated with triggering or exacerbating SW in predisposed individuals1. SW is also a rare and often overlooked antipsychotic side effect considered to occur in ~1% of those treated with quetiapine2, olanzapine3 and asenapine4. However, there are no cases reported with other atypical antipsychotics such as clozapine, despite being a drug with no alternative for those treated with it, and with SW posing a significant risk of injury and impact on treatment adherence. Here, we examined the electronic records embedded in an ethically approved database (NRES 13/EE/0121) of a well-characterized cohort of clozapine-treated patients with a psychotic disorder in order to describe the prevalence and clinical characteristics. Among the 224 subjects in the database, we found two cases of SW onset or exacerbation, accounting for ~1% described below. Patients gave permission for describing their cases.

Description

Keywords

Adult, Antipsychotic Agents, Clozapine, Female, Humans, Middle Aged, Somnambulism

Journal Title

J Clin Psychopharmacol

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0271-0749
1533-712X

Volume Title

40

Publisher

Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health)

Rights

All rights reserved
Sponsorship
EFE and the research database were supported by intramural funding from CPFT and the UK National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre (BRC).