Details for Patent: 8,785,492

Title:	Treatment of circadian rhythm disorders
Abstract:	Embodiments of the invention relate to the use of a melatonin agonist in the treatment of free running circadian rhythms in patients, including light perception impaired patients, e.g., blind patients, and to methods of measuring circadian rhythm.
Inventor(s):	Dressman; Marlene Michelle (Germantown, MD), Feeney; John Joseph (Olney, MD), Licamele; Louis William (Potomac, MD), Polymeropoulos; Mihael H. (Potomac, MD)
Assignee:	Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Washington, DC)
Filing Date:	Jan 25, 2013
Application Number:	13/751,011
Claims:	1. A method of entraining a patient suffering from Non-24 to a 24 hour sleep-wake cycle in which the patient awakens at or near a target wake time following a daily sleep period of approximately 7 to 9 hours, and maintaining said 24 hour sleep-wake cycle said method comprising: treating the patient by orally administering to the patient 20 mg of tasimelteon once daily before a target bedtime. 2. The method of claim 1 wherein the patient is totally blind. 3. The method of claim 2 wherein the tasimelteon is administered 0.5 to 1.5 hours before the target bedtime. 4. The method of claim 3 wherein treatment is initiated on a day in which the patient's urinary aMT6s acrophase is predicted to be within about 5.5 hours before target wake time and about 2.5 hours after target wake time. 5. The method of claim 3 wherein treatment is initiated on a day in which the patient's urinary cortisol acrophase is predicted to be within about 5.5 hours before target wake time and about 2.5 hours after target wake time.