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Review
. 2025 Mar;39(Suppl 1):71-83.
doi: 10.1007/s40263-024-01144-6. Epub 2025 Mar 20.

Sodium Oxybate: Practical Considerations and Patient Perspectives

Maggie Lavender  1 , Cecile Martin  2 , Diana Anderson  3
Affiliations
Review

Sodium Oxybate: Practical Considerations and Patient Perspectives

Maggie Lavender et al. CNS Drugs. 2025 Mar.

Abstract

Narcolepsy is a rare, chronic sleep disorder with significant impacts on the quality of life of people affected by the disorder. People with narcolepsy (PWN) are a diverse patient population with evolving symptoms, comorbidities, and perspectives. As PWN have varying needs, clinicians should consider a more personalized approach to therapy, including active participation of PWN in their care and shared decision-making between patient and clinician to achieve optimal outcomes. In this review, we discuss the various characteristics and challenges of PWN, present illustrative clinical case scenarios of PWN, provide clinicians with a proposed framework to best address therapy for PWN, and demystify concerns with sodium oxybate.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Funding: This article has been published as part of a journal supplement wholly funded by Avadel Pharmaceuticals (Chesterfield, MO, USA). The development of this manuscript was funded by Avadel Pharmaceuticals. Open access publication and publication costs were funded by Avadel Pharmaceuticals. Conflict of interest: ML is a speaker or has received consulting fees for participation on advisory boards for Avadel Pharmaceuticals, Harmony Biosciences, and Jazz Pharmaceuticals. CM has received consulting fees for participation on advisory boards for Avadel Pharmaceuticals, Axsome, and Harmony Biosciences and has served on speaker’s bureaus for Avadel Pharmaceuticals. DA is an employee of Avadel Pharmaceuticals. Ethics approval: Not applicable. Consent to participate: Not applicable. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Availability of data and material: Data sharing is not applicable to this article, as no datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study. Code availability: Not applicable. Author contributions: ML, CM, and DA contributed to the conceptualization and refining of the review, analysis and interpretation, and writing of the original draft, as well as reviewing, editing, and critically revising the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the final submitted manuscript and agree to be accountable for the work.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Checklist for patient discussion. Adapted from Morse et al. Presented at World Sleep 2022; March 15, 2022 [85]
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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MeSH terms