A Trial of the Drug Donepezil for Sleep Enhancement and Behavioral Change in Children With Autism
Public ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT01887132. Field values are reproduced from the official study page; the official ClinicalTrials.gov record remains the source of truth for eligibility, enrollment, and contact information.
Data is sourced from official ClinicalTrials.gov public API records. Always review the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for the latest information.
Official title
A Randomized Controlled Trial of Donepezil for REM Enhancement and Behavioral Change in Autism
Brief summary
Reproduced verbatim from the official ClinicalTrials.gov record. Not medical advice.
Background: \- Some children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) do not have normal sleep cycles. Some of these children spend very little time in the rapid eye movement (REM) stage of sleep. Some studies suggest that less time in REM sleep can be associated with learning and behavior problems. Donepezil is a medication used to treat Alzheimer s disease. Donepezil can increase REM sleep in some adults with different disorders. A small study showed that Donepezil can also increase REM sleep in children with ASD. Researchers now want to see if Donepezil can improve communication skills and social interaction in children with ASD. They also want to see if any change in symptoms seems to come from changes in REM sleep. Objectives: \- To see if a medication, Donepezil, can improve the way communication skills and social interaction develop in young children with autism spectrum disorders. Eligibility: \- Children 22 to 44 months of age with ASD. Design: * Participants will be screened with a blood test, heart tests, and a sleep study. During the sleep study, children will sleep in a darkened room for 2 nights with electrodes on their body and a tube under their nose. Parents can sleep in the room with their child. A technician will monitor the room all night. * Participants will take the study medication once a day. * Treatment will be monitored at visits every 3 months. At each visit the participant will take blood tests, heart tests, or behavior tests. Participants will have 2 more sleep studies. * Participation will end after 18 months.
Study identification
- NCT ID
- NCT01887132
- Recruitment status
- Terminated
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Phase 2
- Enrollment
- 5 participants
Conditions and interventions
Conditions
Eligibility (public fields only)
- Age range
- 24 Months to 50 Months
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Healthy volunteers not accepted
This page does not interpret eligibility. Detailed inclusion and exclusion criteria are on the official ClinicalTrials.gov record.
Study timeline
- Start date
- May 31, 2013
- Primary completion
- Nov 30, 2015
- Completion
- Nov 30, 2015
- Last update posted
- Sep 24, 2017
2013 – 2015
United States locations
- U.S. sites
- 1
- U.S. states
- 1
- U.S. cities
- 1
| Facility | City | State | ZIP | Site status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, 9000 Rockville Pike | Bethesda | Maryland | 20892 | — |
Site contact phone numbers, emails, and investigator names are intentionally not displayed here. Open the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for site contact information.
About this trial record page
- What this page shows
- Public field values for ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT01887132, including study identification, conditions, interventions, eligibility (age, sex, healthy volunteer), timeline, and U.S. site list.
- What this page does not do
- No medical advice, eligibility judgments, treatment recommendations, study quality scoring, or AI-generated medical summaries. No site contact phone numbers, emails, or investigator names.
- Where the data comes from
- Sourced from the official ClinicalTrials.gov public API. The official record is the source of truth.
- Last refresh
- Last update posted Sep 24, 2017 · Synced Sep 6, 2026
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Open the official record
The complete protocol, eligibility criteria, and contact information for NCT01887132 live on ClinicalTrials.gov.