Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Sep;19(9):738-747.
doi: 10.30773/pi.2022.0117. Epub 2022 Sep 22.

Effectiveness of Clonidine in Child and Adolescent Sleep Disorders

Young-Jin Jang  1 , Haemi Choi  2 , Tae Sun Han  3 , Dajung Sung  2 , Jae Yeon Woo  4 , Tae-Hyeong Kim  2 , Min-Hyeon Park  2
Affiliations

Effectiveness of Clonidine in Child and Adolescent Sleep Disorders

Young-Jin Jang et al. Psychiatry Investig. 2022 Sep.

Abstract

Objective: We aimed to investigate the improvement in sleep quantity and quality when clonidine was used in children and adolescents with insomnia. We also examined how sociodemographic characteristics such as age, sex, underlying psychological problems, and levels of depression and anxiety affected the effect of clonidine.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed outpatients aged 6 to 24 who took clonidine due to insomnia from September 2019 to September 2021 at the Department of Psychiatry at Eunpyeong St. Mary's Hospital of Catholic University. We used the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Children's Depression Inventory (CDI), and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) for our study.

Results: A total of 62 participants were included in our study (34 females, mean age 13.94±4.94 years). After using clonidine, there was a significant decrease in PSQI components 1, 2, and 5, especially PSQI component 2. There was a greater decrease in sleep latency when clonidine was used in females, those aged between 13 and 24, those with mood/anxiety disorder or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, those whose sleep latency exceeded 60 minutes at baseline, and those who used clonidine for more than 14 days. Those with higher STAI-Trait scores and CDI scores at baseline showed less improvement in total PSQI scores.

Conclusion: Considering that there are currently no Food and Drug Administration-approved sleep drugs for children and adolescents and no apparent difference in efficacy and safety among sleep drugs, we demonstrated that treatment with clonidine might be a good approach to improve sleep quality and quantity for children and adolescents.

Keywords: Adolescent; Child; Clonidine; Sleep latency; Sleep quality.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest

Min-Hyeon Park, a contributing editor of the Psychiatry Investigation, was not involved in the editorial evaluation or decision to publish this article. All remaining authors have declared no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Changes in sleep latency as assessed by component 2 of the PSQI before and after treatment with clonidine. PSQI, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Owens J. Classification and epidemiology of childhood sleep disorders. Sleep Med Clin. 2007;2:353–361.
    1. Lewien C, Genuneit J, Meigen C, Kiess W, Poulain T. Sleep-related difficulties in healthy children and adolescents. BMC Pediatr. 2021;21:82. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Liu X, Buysse DJ, Gentzler AL, Kiss E, Mayer L, Kapornai K, et al. Insomnia and hypersomnia associated with depressive phenomenology and comorbidity in childhood depression. Sleep. 2007;30:83–90. - PubMed
    1. Puig-Antich J, Goetz R, Hanlon C, Davies M, Thompson J, Chambers WJ, et al. Sleep architecture and REM sleep measures in prepubertal children with major depression: a controlled study. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1982;39:932–939. - PubMed
    1. Tikotzky L, Sadeh A. The role of cognitive-behavioral therapy in behavioral childhood insomnia. Sleep Med. 2010;11:686–691. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources