• Hideaki Hasuo, Ryohei Fujii, Kazuki Uchitani, Hiroko Sakuma, Kenji Kanbara, and Mikihiko Fukunaga.
• J Pain Palliat Care Pharmacother. 2018 Jun 1; 32 (2-3): 134-140.

AbstractThe objective of the study was to evaluate effectiveness and safety of intravenous chlorpromazine for the short-term treatment of insomnia in end-stage cancer patients. Insomnia occurs as one of distressing symptoms in 70% of end-stage cancer patients. End-stage cancer patients often have difficulty in oral administration because of disease progress. We retrospectively evaluated 30 end-stage cancer patients with difficulty in oral administration who received intravenous chlorpromazine for the short-term treatment of insomnia. A primary end point was sleep quality based on St. Mary's Hospital Sleep Questionnaire 3 days after the treatment. Improved sleep quality was observed on the day after the treatment and later (P < .001), and the effective rate mean was 0.63 (95% confidential interval: 0.45-0.81) 3 days after the treatment. Increased total sleep time and decreased sleep latency time were observed 3 days after the treatment (P < .001); however, no improvement in depth of sleep was achieved (P = .231). There was no adverse event except for two delirium cases. The study indicated that intravenous chlorpromazine can be applied safely and effectively for the short-term treatment of insomnia in end-stage cancer patients with difficulty in oral administration.

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