Suvorexant May Aid Insomnia Tied to Hot Flashes

WEDNESDAY, March 2, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Suvorexant may aid insomnia associated with hot flashes in perimenopausal and postmenopausal women, according to a study recently published in SLEEP.

Shadab A. Rahman, Ph.D., from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, and colleagues randomly assigned 56 women with chronic insomnia associated with nighttime vasomotor symptoms (VMS) to receive oral suvorexant 10 mg to 20 mg (27 women) or placebo (29 women) nightly for four weeks.

The researchers found that the average four-week Insomnia Severity Index within-person decrease from baseline was greater with suvorexant compared with placebo (−8.1 versus −5.6). Nighttime diary-rated VMS frequency was significantly reduced with suvorexant versus placebo. There was a trend toward improvement for diary-rated wake after sleep onset and total sleep time, but findings were not significant. There were no differences seen between the groups for daytime VMS and other sleep-related outcomes. Suvorexant was well tolerated.

"Our study shows that there is a well-tolerated treatment that's now available to treat chronic insomnia in peri- and postmenopausal women that may also help reduce night sweats," Rahman said in the statement. "Our results are promising in the population we studied and there's a strong biological explanation for why we may be seeing improvements in reported insomnia as well as night sweats."

Several authors disclosed financial ties to pharmaceutical companies, including Merck, which manufactures suvorexant and funded the study.

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