Treatment of Pendular Nystagmus in OPT

August 26, 2025 updated by: Hospices Civils de Lyon

Treatment of Pendular Nystagmus With Gabapentin and Memantine in Patients With Oculopalatal Tremor: a Controled Open-label Study

Pendular nystagmus corresponds to an enduring to and fro eye oscillation without resetting quick phases. The most common causes of acquired pendular nystagmus (APN) are multiple sclerosis (MS) and focal brainstem lesions (oculopalatal tremor, OPT). Based on pathophysiological hypothesis, pharmacological treatments of acquired nystagmus have been thoroughly proposed over different publications of cases, series, reviews or expert opinions. Acquired pendular nystagmus underwent the most rigorous treatment trials, leading to the proposal of gabapentin or memantine as valuable drugs. Whether gabapentin and memantine are effective in APN associated with OPT remains unclear, since none of the previous studies has evaluated the effect of these medications in a group of OPT patients. However, this is an important issue in prospect to a clinical use of these medications. In the current study, the investigators aim is to evaluate the effect of gabapentin and memantine on the mean velocity, amplitude and frequency of pendular nystagmus, as well as on visual acuity and vision-specific health-related quality of life score, in a group of OPT patients

Study Overview

Status

Status

Indicates the current recruitment status or the expanded access status.
Completed

Conditions

Conditions

The disease, disorder, syndrome, illness, or injury that is being studied. On ClinicalTrials.gov, conditions may also include other health-related issues, such as lifespan, quality of life, and health risks.

Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.

Study Type

Study Type

Describes the nature of a clinical study. Study types include interventional studies (also called clinical trials), observational studies (including patient registries), and expanded access.
Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

Enrollment

The number of participants in a clinical study. The "anticipated" enrollment is the target number of participants that the researchers need for the study.
7

Phase

Phase

The stage of a clinical trial studying a drug or biological product, based on definitions developed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The phase is based on the study's objective, the number of participants, and other characteristics. There are five phases: Early Phase 1 (formerly listed as Phase 0), Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, and Phase 4. Not Applicable is used to describe trials without FDA-defined phases, including trials of devices or behavioral interventions.
  • Phase 4

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • France
      • Lyon, France, 69002
        • Hospices Civils de Lyon

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

The key requirements that people who want to participate in a clinical study must meet or the characteristics they must have. Eligibility criteria consist of both inclusion criteria (which are required for a person to participate in the study) and exclusion criteria (which prevent a person from participating). Types of eligibility criteria include whether a study accepts healthy volunteers, has age or age group requirements, or is limited by sex.

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Patients with a diagnosis of oculopalatal tremor (OPT), following a focal brainstem lesion.
  • All patients may present a chronic acquired pendular nystagmus due to OPT, observed over a period of 6 months.
  • All patients will be informed about the design and purpose of the study, and all will give their informed, written consent to the protocol, which may have been approved by the local ethics committee.
  • Age: above 18
  • Able to understand the instructions
  • Having a health coverage
  • Able to sit down for 1 hour
  • Stable dosage of previous medications (beginning 3 weeks previously and terminating at the end of the trial duration), except gabapentin or memantine.
  • For women: efficient contraception during the experimental time and in the two month following treatment withdrawal.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Ophthalmological

    • Other ophthalmological disorder that could impair corrected visual acuity (Maculopathy, Retinopathy…)

  • Neurological

    • Ongoing seizure
    • Severe handicap that does not allow sitting down position for 1 hour
  • Suicidal behavior or risk

  • Treatment

    • Under memantine or gabapentin medication (these medications should have been stopped for at least 1 week for gabapentin and 3 weeks for memantine)
    • Under morphine, N-methyl-D-aspartate such as amantadine, ketamine or dextromethorphan
    • Steroid medication for a current relapse (beginning 3 weeks previously and terminating at the end of the trial duration
    • Known hypersensitivity to memantine or gabapentin

  • General

    • Unstable medical state
    • Patient with a galactose intolerance, a lapp lactase deficiency or glucose-galactose malabsorption
    • Moderate renal failure (creatinine clearance < 50 mL/min on bioassay dated from less than one month)
    • Recent heart infarction (<3months)
    • Unstable congestive heart insufficiency
    • Unstable arterial hypertension
    • Leucopenia (<2500/mm3)
    • Transaminase increase (>5 time normal values)
  • Pregnancy (on questioning)
  • Tutelage or any legal protection measure

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Crossover Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Participant Group / Arm

A group or subgroup of participants in a clinical trial that receives a specific intervention/treatment, or no intervention, according to the trial's protocol.
Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.
Experimental: memantine first
Patients will be randomly assigned to start on either memantine or gabapentin. For tolerance reasons, each treatment begins with a progressive increasing dose and stops with a progressive decreasing dose. The duration of the period of last dose (8 to 11 days) will be chosen according to the investigator's availability to organize post-tests.
Drug: Memantine
Experimental: gabapentin first
Patients will be randomly assigned to start on either memantine or gabapentin. For tolerance reasons, each treatment begins with a progressive increasing dose and stops with a progressive decreasing dose. The duration of the period of last dose (8 to 11 days) will be chosen according to the investigator's availability to organize post-tests.
Drug: Gabapentin

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, the planned outcome measure that is the most important for evaluating the effect of an intervention/treatment. Most clinical studies have one primary outcome measure, but some have more than one.
Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Velocity, amplitude and frequency of nystagmus using eye movement recording
Time Frame: at Day 17-21
at Day 17-21
Velocity, amplitude and frequency of nystagmus using eye movement recording
Time Frame: at Day 34-42
at Day 34-42
Velocity, amplitude and frequency of nystagmus using eye movement recording
Time Frame: at Day 64-79
at Day 64-79
Velocity, amplitude and frequency of nystagmus using eye movement recording
Time Frame: at Day 81-100
at Day 81-100

Secondary Outcome Measures

Secondary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, a planned outcome measure that is not as important as the primary outcome measure for evaluating the effect of an intervention but is still of interest. Most clinical studies have more than one secondary outcome measure.
Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Functional score on questioning as measured by the 25-Item National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire
Time Frame: at Day 17-21
at Day 17-21
Functional score on questioning as measured by the 25-Item National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire
Time Frame: at Day 34-42
at Day 34-42
Functional score on questioning as measured by the 25-Item National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire
Time Frame: at Day 64-79
at Day 64-79
Functional score on questioning as measured by the 25-Item National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire
Time Frame: at Day 81-100
at Day 81-100
subjective measure of oscillopsia
Time Frame: at Day 17-21
at Day 17-21
subjective measure of oscillopsia
Time Frame: at Day 34-42
at Day 34-42
subjective measure of oscillopsia
Time Frame: at Day 64-79
at Day 64-79
subjective measure of oscillopsia
Time Frame: at Day 81-100
at Day 81-100
far visual acuity as measured by monocularly and binocularly direction and amplitude (measures in degrees) of their oscillopsia while viewing, with best correction, a stationary target at far (5 m) and near (57 cm) location.
Time Frame: at Day 17-21
at Day 17-21
far visual acuity as measured by monocularly and binocularly direction and amplitude (measures in degrees) of their oscillopsia while viewing, with best correction, a stationary target at far (5 m) and near (57 cm) location.
Time Frame: at Day 34-42
at Day 34-42
far visual acuity as measured by monocularly and binocularly direction and amplitude (measures in degrees) of their oscillopsia while viewing, with best correction, a stationary target at far (5 m) and near (57 cm) location.
Time Frame: at Day 64-79
at Day 64-79
far visual acuity as measured by monocularly and binocularly direction and amplitude (measures in degrees) of their oscillopsia while viewing, with best correction, a stationary target at far (5 m) and near (57 cm) location.
Time Frame: at Day 81-100
at Day 81-100

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Sponsor

The organization or person who initiates the study and who has authority and control over the study.
Hospices Civils de Lyon

Investigators

Investigators

A researcher involved in a clinical study. Related terms include site principal investigator, site sub-investigator, study chair, study director, and study principal investigator.
  • Principal Investigator: Caroline Tilikete, Pr, Hospices Civils de Lyon

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

Study Start

The actual date on which the first participant was enrolled in a clinical study. The "anticipated" study start date is the date that the researchers think will be the study start date.
June 1, 2015

Primary Completion (Actual)

Primary Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention to collect final data for the primary outcome measure. Whether the clinical study ended according to the protocol or was terminated does not affect this date. For clinical studies with more than one primary outcome measure with different completion dates, this term refers to the date on which data collection is completed for all the primary outcome measures. The "anticipated" primary completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the primary completion date for the study.
January 1, 2016

Study Completion (Actual)

Study Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention/treatment to collect final data for the primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures, and adverse events (that is, the last participant's last visit). The "anticipated" study completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the study completion date.
January 1, 2016

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

First Submitted

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submitted a study record to ClinicalTrials.gov. There is typically a delay of a few days between the first submitted date and the record's availability on ClinicalTrials.gov (the first posted date).
May 22, 2015

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submits a study record that is consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. The sponsor or investigator may need to revise and submit a study record one or more times before NLM's QC review criteria are met. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
June 4, 2015

First Posted (Estimated)

First Posted

The date on which the study record was first available on ClinicalTrials.gov after National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review has concluded. There is typically a delay of a few days between the date the study sponsor or investigator submitted the study record and the first posted date.
June 9, 2015

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimated)

Last Update Posted

The most recent date on which changes to a study record were made available on ClinicalTrials.gov. There may be a delay between when the changes were submitted to ClinicalTrials.gov by the study's sponsor or investigator (the last update submitted date) and the last update posted date.
September 3, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator submitted changes to a study record that are consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
August 26, 2025

Last Verified

Last Verified

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator confirmed the information about a clinical study on ClinicalTrials.gov as accurate and current. If a study with a recruitment status of recruiting; not yet recruiting; or active, not recruiting has not been confirmed within the past 2 years, the study's recruitment status is shown as unknown.
August 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

Other Study ID Numbers

Identifiers or ID numbers other than the NCT number that are assigned to a clinical study by the study's sponsor, funders, or others. These numbers may include unique identifiers from other trial registries and National Institutes of Health grant numbers.
  • 69HCL14_0438
  • 2014-005548-17 (EudraCT Number)

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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