Subjectively reported sleep improvement with antipsychotic medications in clinical practice: A systematic review,meta-analysis and meta-regression of moderating factors

Abstract

Background:

While some antipsychotics (APs) have been investigated with some controversy for insomnia associated with other mental disorders or off-label due to their sedative properties, evidence for their efficacy and safety remains inconclusive.

Aims:

Our systematic review and meta-analysis have analysed comprehensively the impact of first- and second-generation (SGA) APs on subjective sleep measures.

Methods:

A research string was used in PubMed, ISI Web of Science, Scopus, Cochrane and ClinicalTrials.gov databases, including both randomised clinical trials (RCTs) and non-RCTs.

Results:

Overall, 43 studies were included in the systematic review, and 21 were included in the meta-analysis. APs were more effective than placebo in improving subjective measures of sleep quality and were associated with an improvement in sleep quality from the baseline to the end of the trial. We performed a meta-regression for possible moderators and found a significant effect of age and sex, with older subjects and males responding less to APs’ effect on sleep. APs with higher antihistaminergic activity (e.g. quetiapine) improved sleep quality more than the dopaminergic/serotoninergic (e.g. risperidone) or simply serotonergic (e.g. pimavanserine) ones. Individuals with anxiety disorders reported greater effects of APs, especially SGAs with antihistaminergic activity, on sleep, and longer trials reported greater improvement in sleep quality.

Conclusions:

APs, mostly SGAs, improved sleep quality more than placebo, and this effect was more pronounced in anxiety disorders, for anti-histaminergic APs, and in longer trials. These results could add another important tile to the mosaic of precision medicine for prescribing APs.