Pitolisant for treating patients with narcolepsy.

This article aims to review pitolisant.Areas covered: In this paper the chemical properties, mechanism of action, pharmacokinetics, clinical efficacy and safety of pitolisant was introduced, and the development course of drugs for treating narcolepsy is also briefly described. We performed a systematic review of the literature using PubMed and the following keywords were used: "pitolisant" and "narcolepsy", "cataplexy" and "excessive daytime sleepiness" and "histamine 3 receptor".Expert opinion: Pitolisant is a histamine 3 receptor antagonist/inverse agonist. It can activate histamine release in the brain and enhances wakefulness. Clinical studies showed that pitolisant significantly decreased excessive daytime sleepiness and cataplexy rate versus placebo. Pitolisant was well tolerated, common adverse reactions were headache,insomnia, nausea, and anxiety. PMID: 31937172 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Pharmacological Reviews - Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Authors: Tags: Expert Rev Clin Pharmacol Source Type: research