Nabilone for Agitation in Frontotemporal Dementia

Frontotemporal Dementia Clinical Trial

— Nabilone-FTD  

Official title:

Double Blind Crossover Clinical Trial of Nabilone for Agitation in Frontotemporal Dementia

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Active, not recruiting

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT05742698
• Other study ID #: Nabilone-FTD
• Status: Active, not recruiting
• Phase: Phase 2
• Start date: March 7, 2023
• Est. completion date: December 2025

Study information

• Verified date: October 2023
• Source: Douglas Mental Health University Institute
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

The primary goal of this study is to test the hypothesis that oral nabilone treatment will reduce agitation compared with placebo in patients with Frontotemporal Dementia (both behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia and primary progressive aphasia). The study population is defined as patients with probable Frontotemporal Dementia that meet the International Psychogeriatric Association criteria for agitation in cognitive disorders.

Description:

While the search for disease modifying treatment of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) remains elusive, on a day-to-day basis, clinicians struggle to help manage the severe neuropsychiatric symptoms of FTD. Agitation, irritability and aggression are common features of the behavioral variant of FTD and to a lesser extent in primary progressive aphasia, and these symptoms are strongly linked to care partner burden. Unfortunately, current pharmacological options for neuropsychiatric symptoms have limited efficacy. Agitation, aggressive behaviors and irritability in FTD are usually pharmacologically managed with a trial-and-error approach using a combination of trazodone, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, antiepileptic drugs, memantine and frequently, antipsychotics. Unfortunately, current pharmacological treatment options for neuropsychiatric symptoms of FTD have limited efficacy and are often based on small case studies or anecdotal evidence. Trazodone has the most support from randomized control trials, but shows limited effectiveness. Therefore, in clinical practice second-generation ('atypical') antipsychotics are commonly used despite a paucity of scientific evidence in FTD. This practice is problematic as antipsychotic use in dementia bears a significant burden of side-effects, including falls, and increased cerebrovascular accidents and mortality. There is a clear need for new treatments using novel mechanisms for neuropsychiatric symptoms in FTD.

One promising candidate is nabilone, a synthetic cannabinoid that has shown benefit for agitation in Alzheimer's disease. Nabilone further has potentially beneficial properties on oxidative stress and inflammation in neurodegenerative diseases, mechanisms that have been linked to the pathophysiology of FTD. We propose to conduct the first randomized clinical trial of nabilone for agitation, irritability, and aggression in FTD to obtain data on real-life effectiveness and tolerability. There is a need to obtain data on the efficacy of nabilone on a wide variety of neuropsychiatric symptoms beyond agitation in FTD, while also ensuring the safety of the medication (e.g., is there a detrimental effect on apathy and hyperorality, which are common in FTD). We require data on dosing and tolerability in this population, which is younger on average than Alzheimer's disease subjects from previous studies and therefore may tolerate higher doses of nabilone. The objective of this trial is to obtain robust evidence for the effectiveness and tolerability of nabilone in FTD.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Active, not recruiting
• Enrollment: 45
• Est. completion date: December 2025
• Est. primary completion date: May 2025
• Accepts healthy volunteers: No
• Gender: All
• Age group: 18 Years and older

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Men and women over 18 years

• Major neurocognitive disorder due to probable behavioural variant FTD (Rascovsky criteria)17 or primary progressive aphasia (Gorno-Tempini criteria)18. All ages and severity levels will be included.

• Meets International Psychogeriatric Association criteria for agitation in cognitive disorders19

• CMAI score of 39 or above

• Stable psychoactive medication for 1 month prior to screening (all medications allowed) with no intention to change dose during treatment period

• Available study partner with =10 hours per week in-person contact with the patient. This can either be a friend/family member or a staff member at an assisted living facility.

• Capacity to provide written consent in English or French, or consent from official surrogate decision maker in case of incapacity

Rationale for Inclusion Criteria: The inclusion criteria are designed to enroll patients with FTD with the behaviours of interest, with a range of disease severity that will permit assessment of all outcome measures.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Clinically significant psychotic symptoms (Neuropsychiatric Inventory domain score (severity x frequency) =4 on the delusions or hallucinations subscale)

• Clinically significant orthostatic hypotension (a decrease in systolic blood pressure of 20 mm Hg or in diastolic blood pressure of 10 mm Hg within three minutes of standing compared to blood pressure in a seated position)

• Symptomatic orthostatic tachycardia (heart rate increase from of at least 30 beats per minute within the first 5 minutes of standing compared to a seated position IF orthostatic hypotension is not a problem)

• Unstable cardiovascular condition in the opinion of the investigator

• Known or suspected history of drug or alcohol dependence or abuse in the past 12 months, including use of any psychomimetic drugs (e.g. ketamine, lysergic acid diethylamide, psilocybin).

• Allergy, or significant adverse reaction to cannabinoids. If the adverse reaction involved psychological symptoms that are indicative of psychosis or severe anxiety the patient will be excluded. Their treating clinician may be consulted for a clinical opinion on the severity of the response to cannabis and whether this justifies exclusion from the trial.

• Major depressive episode within 6 months of screening

• Women who are breast feeding or pregnant

• Severe liver dysfunction, as determined by their treating clinician

• Other psychiatric or neurological condition that could cause significant agitation

• Ongoing use of any cannabinoid-related products. This includes any THC or CBD based products, regardless of administration method (oral, inhalation, topical, etc…)

Rationale for Exclusion Criteria: The exclusion criteria are designed to avoid inclusion of patients who may have medical comorbidities that would increase their risk of serious side effects from repeated nabilone administration.

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Alzheimer Disease
• Aphasia
• Aphasia, Primary Progressive
• Dementia
• Frontotemporal Dementia
• Frontotemporal Dementia, Behavioral Variant
• FTD
• Pick Disease of the Brain
• PPA
• Primary Progressive Aphasia
• Psychomotor Agitation

Intervention

Drug:
• Nabilone
Nabilone is a synthetic cannabinoid that has shown benefit for agitation in Alzheimer's disease. Nabilone further has potentially beneficial properties on oxidative stress and inflammation in neurodegenerative diseases, mechanisms that have been linked to the pathophysiology of frontotemporal dementia.
• Placebo
The placebo is a capsule identical to the nabilone capsules that will be used in this clinical trial.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
Canada	CHU de Québec, Université Laval	Laval	Quebec
Canada	Brain and Mind Institute, University of Western Ontario	London	Ontario
Canada	The Douglas Research Centre	Montreal	Quebec
Canada	Baycrest Hospital, University of Toronto	Toronto	Ontario
Canada	Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre	Toronto	Ontario
Canada	Western Hospital - University of Toronto	Toronto	Ontario
Canada	University of British Columbia, St Paul's Hospital	Vancouver	British Columbia

Sponsors (2)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Simon Ducharme, MD	Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation

Country where clinical trial is conducted

Canada, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Other	Adverse drug reaction (ADR) to varying doses of nabilone	Quantify the prevalence of ADR that occur in response to varying doses of nabilone treatment in patients diagnosed with Frontotemporal Dementia.	Count the number of adverse drug reactions that occur accross the 6 week nabiolne treatment period to determine how well this medication is tolerated in this patient population.
Primary	Cohen Mansfield Agitation Inventory (CMAI)	A scale that is completed by a caregiver with at lest 10 hours of weekly contact with the patient. This scale evaluates a range of symptoms that fall into the category of agitation.	The patients CMAI score will be compared between their Baseline Assessment (prior to starting treatment) and the outcome Assessment (after 6 weeks of treatment) to determine whether agitation has changed across the treatment period.
Secondary	Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFa)	Examine the relationship between TNFa and CMAI scores at baseline and following nabilone treatment.	Is TNFa associated with CMAI scores at baseline or with change in CMAI scores after 6-weeks of nabilone treatment (i.e. between Baseline and Outcome Assessments)?
Secondary	4-hydroxynonenal (4-HNE)	Examine the relationship between 4-HNE and CMAI scores at baseline and following nabilone treatment.	Is 4-HNE associated with CMAI scores at baseline or with change in CMAI scores after 6-weeks of nabilone treatment (i.e. between Baseline and Outcome Assessments)?