Psychostimulants for hypersomnia (excessive daytime sleepiness) in myotonic dystrophy

Excessive daytime sleepiness is a common symptom of myotonic dystrophy. Psychostimulants are drugs increasingly used to treat hypersomnia in myotonic dystrophy.

To search systematically for, and combine all evidence from, randomised trials relating to the effects of psychostimulants in myotonic dystrophy patients with hypersomnia.

We searched the Cochrane Neuromuscular Disease Trials Register (January 2006), MEDLINE (from January 1966 to January 2006) and EMBASE (from January 1980 to January 2006) for randomised trials concerning psychostimulants in myotonic dystrophy, checked the bibliographies of identified papers and made enquiries of the authors of the papers. The search for relevant studies was updated in January 2006.

We considered all randomised or quasi randomised trials that have evaluated any type of psychostimulants (versus a placebo or no treatment) in children or adults with proven myotonic dystrophy and hypersomnia.

Potentially relevant papers were scrutinised by two authors and the selection of eligible studies was agreed by them and a third author. Data were extracted by one author and checked by a second author.

Primary outcome. One trial using a modified maintenance of wakefulness test showed an improvement by 5.70 (95% confidence intervals 0.1 to 11.3) minutes more in the modafinil than the control group. Secondary outcomes. In a double-blind crossover study of 10 participants with myotonic dystrophy, there was no difference between the selegiline and placebo periods in mean improvement in the multiple sleep latency test. Two trials, involving 60 participants in total, evaluated the efficacy and safety of modafinil in adults with myotonic dystrophy-related daytime sleepiness. The weighted mean difference on the Epworth Sleepiness Scale was -1.59 (95% confidence intervals, -2.77 to -0.42) in favour of modafinil.

There is no evidence to support the routine use of psychostimulants to treat hypersomnia in myotonic dystrophy. There is some evidence from two studies that modafinil may improve daytime sleepiness. More randomised trials are needed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of psychostimulants.