Pharmacological Treatment of Insomnia in Palliative Care

Sleep disturbance is frequent in patients with advanced cancer and decreases the tolerability of other symptoms and impairs quality of life. A detailed description of sleep disturbance and its association with other symptoms, and intervention studies on sleep medications are scarce in patients with advanced cancer. A well-designed randomized controlled trial is needed to determine the short time effectiveness of zopiclone on sleep quality, one of the currently available therapies of insomnia, and further to contribute to the clinical management of insomnia in patients with advanced cancer.