Background: The synthetic tetrahydrocannabinol analogue nabilone improved overall non-motor symptom (NMS) burden in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients in comparison to placebo.
Objectives: To characterize the effects of nabilone on different sleep outcomes in PD patients.
Methods: We performed a post-hoc analysis of the controlled, double-blind, enriched enrollment randomized withdrawal NMS-Nab study to assess the effects of nabilone on sleep outcomes in study participants who reported clinically-relevant sleep problems (MDS-UPDRS-1.7 ≥ 2 points).
Results: After open-label nabilone administration, 77.4% reported no relevant sleep problem. In the withdrawal phase of the trial, the MDS-UPDRS-1.7. and the NMS-Scale Domain 2 (i.e., Sleep/Fatigue) significantly worsened only in PD patients in the placebo group, which was mostly driven by a significant worsening of insomnia (question 5 of the NMS-Scale Domain 2).
Conclusions: This post-hoc analysis of the NMS-Nab trial suggests that nabilone has beneficial effects on sleep outcomes in PD patients experiencing sleep problems at baseline.The original trial was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT03769896, https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03769896) and EudraCT (2017-000192-86).
Keywords: Parkinson's disease; cannabinoids; nabilone; non‐motor symptoms; sleep problems.
© 2022 The Authors. Movement Disorders Clinical Practice published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.