title: Use of ramelteon for the treatment of secondary REM sleep behavior disorder.
abstract: We used ramelteon to treat two patients with secondary REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD) complications along with neurodegenerative diseases including multiple system atrophy and Parkinson's disease. These two patients not only improved in terms of their clinical RBD symptoms but also exhibited a decrease in the proportion of REM sleep without atonia (from 8.5% to 3.5% and from 10.9% to 3.9% in the two patients). Although clonazepam is the standard first-line therapy for the treatment of RBD, ramelteon might be an effective treatment alternative in patients with RBD who cannot take clonazepam due to either ineffectiveness or adverse effects.
authors.affiliation: Division of Neurology, Department of Brain and Neurosciences, Tottori University Faculty of Medicine, Japan.
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nomura
authors.forename: Shinya
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kawase
authors.forename: Yasuhiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Watanabe
authors.forename: Kenji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nakashima
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D002998:Clonazepam / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007192:Indenes / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019578:Multiple System Atrophy / Q000150:complications / Q000188:drug therapy; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000150:complications / Q000188:drug therapy; D017286:Polysomnography; D020187:REM Sleep Behavior Disorder / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D044094:Receptors, Melatonin / Q000819:agonists; D012891:Sleep Apnea Syndromes / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000209:etiology
chemical_list: D007192:Indenes; D044094:Receptors, Melatonin; D002998:Clonazepam; C495910:ramelteon