Trial reportIntensive care medicine2024
Low-dose clonidine infusion to improve sleep in postoperative patients in the high-dependency unit. A randomised placebo-controlled single-centre trial.
Trial report in Intensive care medicine, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Dietary Supplement Interventions and Sleep Quality Improvement: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Nutrients · 2025Pooled it
- Melatonin and delirium in the intensive care units: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.Intensive care medicine · 2025Pooled it
- The Use of Intravenous Clonidine in Postoperative Pain Management: A Scoping Review.Acta anaesthesiologica Scandinavica · 2026Article
- Article
- Interpreting sleep outcomes in the ICU: Reflections on the DREAM trial-Author's reply.Critical care and resuscitation : journal of the Australasian Academy of Critical Care Medicine · 2026Article
- A pilot, parallel-group, blinded, placebo-controlled, randomiseCritical care and resuscitation : journal of the Australasian Academy of Critical Care Medicine · 2026Article
- Exploring the analgesic effect of artificial dura mater as a carrier for local hydromorphone delivery in posterior lumbar interbody fusion: a randomized controlled trial.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2026Article
- Enhancing Caudal Analgesia in Children: A Narrative Review of Clonidine and Dexmedetomidine as Adjuvants.Cureus · 2025Review
- Clonidine Protects Endothelial Cells from Angiotensin II-Induced Injury via Anti-Inflammatory and Antioxidant Mechanisms.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Clonidine, dexmedetomidine, and postoperative sleep.Intensive care medicine · 2025Article
- Additive Effects of Clonidine Used in Propofol Sedation in Colonoscopy.Anesthesiology and pain medicine · 2025Article
- Postoperative sleep-improving effects of low-dose clonidine: reflections from a randomized controlled trial.Intensive care medicine · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
14 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeDexmedetomidine increases sleep and reduces delirium in postoperative patients, but it is expensive and requires a monitored environment. Clonidine, another
methodsThe Clonidine at Low dosage postoperatively to Nocturnally Enhance Sleep (CLONES) study was a double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group pilot effectiveness randomised trial involving adult elective surgery HDU patients in a single academic hospital. Patients received clonidine 0.3 μg/kg/h or saline placebo on the night of surgery. The primary outcome was total sleep time measured using a consumer actigraphy/photoplethysmography device.
resultsOf the 83 randomised patients, three had no data available, leaving 80 (39 clonidine, 41 placebo) in the intention-to-treat analysis, modified for missing data. Median patient ages of the groups were similar (61 and 59 years), as were other baseline characteristics. Clonidine patients had a mean of 100.8 (95% confidence interval [CI] 38.2-163.4) minutes (p = 0.002) longer total sleep time (mean 497.2 vs. 396.4 min) and reported better sleep overall. Delirium was only observed in one patient prior to study drug infusion, and none at the end of the study. Safety outcomes were not different. Four clonidine patients had their medication ceased due to bradycardia and hypotension that required no additional treatment.
conclusionAmong postoperative elective surgical patients admitted to HDU, low-dose non-titrated clonidine, compared to placebo, was associated with longer and subjectively better-quality sleep.
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