Does Herceptin Cause Insomnia?
Herceptin® (
trastuzumab) is a prescription medicine used to treat
breast cancer. As with other medicines, there are several possible side effects of Herceptin.
Insomnia appears to be one of the more common. This is based on a clinical study where up to 14 percent of people taking the drug reported insomnia as a side effect. Insomnia was even more common when Herceptin was used in combination with chemotherapy medications.
People with insomnia have one or more of the following symptoms:
- Difficulty falling asleep
- Waking up often during the night and having trouble going back to sleep
- Waking up too early in the morning
- Unrefreshing sleep.
However, it is difficult to tell if insomnia is caused by Herceptin or by other factors (such as the condition itself), due to the way clinical studies of Herceptin were designed. In most non-cancer studies, a portion of the participants takes a placebo (sugar pill). This pill will not treat the condition and causes no side effects. Any side effect that does occur in the placebo group is because of the condition or other factors. By having people take a placebo, it is possible to compare side effects between the group taking the medicine and those who are not. This allows researchers to see what, if any, impact the medicine has on increasing or decreasing a particular problem.
However, because it would be unethical to not treat breast cancer, there was no placebo group for any Herceptin studies. Therefore, it is difficult to tell if insomnia is due to Herceptin, other factors, or a combination of both.
