insomnia Tag

02 Dec

Posted at 01:45h in Author Interviews, Insomnia, JAMA
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_30102" align="alignleft" width="133"]Lee M. Ritterband, Ph.D. Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences Director, Center for Behavioral Health and Technology University of Virginia School of Medicine Ivy Foundational Translational Research Building Charlottesville, VA 22903 Dr. Lee M. Ritterband[/caption] Lee M. Ritterband, Ph.D. Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences Director, Center for Behavioral Health and Technology University of Virginia School of Medicine Ivy Foundational Translational Research Building Charlottesville, VA 22903  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, a non-pharmacological intervention, is the first line recommendation for adults with chronic insomnia (see recommendations made earlier this year from the American College of Physicians). Access to CBT-I, however, is limited by numerous barriers, including a limited supply of behavioral medicine providers. One way to help improve access to this effective treatment is to develop and evaluate additional delivery methods of CBT-I, including Internet-delivered CBT-I. This study was designed to evaluate the efficacy of an Internet-delivered CBT-I program (SHUTi: Sleep Healthy Using The Internet) over the short-term (9-weeks) and long-term (1-year).

07 Jul

Posted at 11:15h in Author Interviews, Insomnia, JAMA, Mental Health Research
Jason Ong, Ph.D., CBSM Associate Professor, Department of Behavioral Sciences Director, Behavioral Sleep Medicine Training Program Rush University Medical CenterMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jason Ong, Ph.D., CBSM Associate Professor, Department of Behavioral Sciences Director, Behavioral Sleep Medicine Training Program Rush University Medical Center Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Insomnia is a very common sleep problem that was previously thought to be related to another medical or psychiatric condition.  Evidence now supports the notion that insomnia can emerge as a disorder distinct from the comorbid condition.  In this study, we evaluated the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I), the most widely used nonpharmacologic treatment for insomnia, in the context of medical and psychiatric comorbidities. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of 37 studies and found that 36% of patients who received cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia were in remission at post-treatment compared to 17% who received a control or comparison condition.  CBT-I had medium to large effects for improving sleep quality and reducing the amount of time awake in bed.  Positive findings were also found on the comorbid condition, with greater improvements in psychiatric conditions compared to medical conditions.

10 Jun

Posted at 16:26h in Annals Internal Medicine, Author Interviews, Insomnia, Psychological Science
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr David Cunnington Sleep Physician & Director Melbourne Sleep Disorders Centre East Melbourne Australia Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Insomnia is a very common problem with 15-20% of adults having chronic insomnia, that is, trouble getting to sleep or staying asleep most days for  3 months or more. The most commonly used treatment is sleeping pills or hypnotics, however, they don’t address the underlying disorder, and come with potential side effects. Also, sleeping tablets just mask the symptoms, and as soon as tablets are stopped, symptoms recur. People with chronic insomnia think and behave differently around sleep, which perpetuates their symptoms. The key to improving symptoms in the long run is addressing thoughts and behaviours around sleep, which is what cognitive behaviour therapy does. Our study showed that cognitive behaviour therapy reduced the time taken to get to sleep by 20 minutes and reduced the amount of time spent awake after falling asleep by nearly 30 minutes. These effects were maintained out to 12 months after treatment. These reductions in time taken to get to sleep and time spent awake are similar to those reported in clinical trials of hypnotics. 

02 Nov

Posted at 16:11h in Accidents & Violence, Author Interviews, Insomnia
Lars Laugsand, MD, PhD, Postdoctoral fellow Department of Public Health Norwegian University of Science in Technology Trondheim, Norway.MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Lars Laugsand, MD, PhD, Postdoctoral fellow Department of Public Health Norwegian University of Science in Technology Trondheim, Norway. Medical Research: What is the background for this study? Dr. Laugsand: Very few prospective studies have assessed the association of insomnia symptoms and risk for injuries. Medical Research: What are the main findings? Dr. Laugsand: We found that increasing number of insomnia symptoms was strongly associated with higher risk for both overall unintentional fatal injuries and fatal motor-vehicle injuries in a dose-dependent manner. Those who reported to suffer from all major insomnia symptoms were at considerably higher risk than those who had no symptoms or only a few symptoms. Among the different insomnia symptoms, difficulties falling asleep appeared to have the strongest and most robust association with fatal injuries.

04 Sep

Posted at 21:51h in Author Interviews, Insomnia, Occupational Health
Tea Lallukka, PhD Finnish Institute of Occupational Health & University of Helsinki, Hjelt Institute, Department of Public Health University of Helsinki, FinlandMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Tea Lallukka, PhD Finnish Institute of Occupational Health & University of Helsinki, Hjelt Institute, Department of Public Health University of Helsinki, Finland Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Lallukka: Our study used nationally representative survey data linked with register data on medically certified sickness absence among working -aged Finnish women and men. We showed consistent associations between insomnia symptoms, sleep duration, and being tired and sickness absence. The follow-up lasted around 7 years. Sickness absence days were derived from comprehensive registers from the Social Insurance Institution of Finland. The associations were broadly similar among women and men. Furthermore, they remained even after considering key correlates of sleep and sickness absence including socioeconomic position, working conditions, health behaviors, obesity, and mental and physical health. Health data were derived from physical examination conducted by field physicians. These data are more objective, and help provide more robust evidence. We further covered all key sleep disturbances and sleep duration for more comprehensive understanding about the contribution of sleep to sickness absence. Finally, a novel method developed by the authors (Härkänen & Kaikkonen) allowed us to estimate the difference in sickness absence days per working year among those reporting and not reporting different sleep disturbances. Using the difference in days absent from work, we were further able to estimate the hypothetical direct costs of sickness absence highlighting notable societal significance of sleep. Thus, a large part of all costs of sickness absence are attributable to poor sleep. For example, those sleeping 5 hours or less or 10 hours or more, were absent from work ca 5-9 days more, as compared to those with optimal sleep length. The optimal sleep length with the lowest risk of sickness absence was 7 hours 46 minutes for men and 7 hours 38 minutes for women.

31 Jul

Posted at 02:22h in Author Interviews, Insomnia, Mental Health Research
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Pasquale K Alvaro School of Psychology University of Adelaide South Australia, Australia Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: In adolescents, insomnia is related to depression beyond chronotype (a classification system for circadian rhythms or body clock), anxiety and age. Insomnia is also related to Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD) beyond chronotype, depression and age. Depression accounts for the relationship between insomnia and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Separation Anxiety Disorder (SAD) and Social Phobia (SP). Furthermore, an evening chronotype  (delayed sleep phase, that is, preferring to go to bed in the early morning) predicts insomnia beyond depression, anxiety and age. Moreover, an evening chronotype predicts depression beyond insomnia, anxiety and age. Finally, insomnia and depression account for the relationships between an evening chronotype and panic disorder, OCD, SAD and SP.

12 Jun

Posted at 02:44h in Author Interviews, Insomnia, Johns Hopkins, Sleep Disorders
Hemodialysis.com Interview with: Christopher Kaufmann, MHS Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Hampton House, Room 800 624 North Broadway Baltimore, MD 21205 email: ckaufman@jhsph.edu MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Mr. Kaufmann:  The purpose of our study was to examine the association between insomnia and the use of a number of costly health services.  We used data from the Health and Retirement Study, a large nationally representative longitudinal population-based study of US middle-aged and older adults.  We found that individuals who reported a greater number of insomnia symptoms were more likely to report being hospitalized, using home healthcare services, and using nursing homes two years later.  After we accounted for a number of demographic and clinical characteristics, the association between number of reported insomnia symptoms and hospitalization remained statistically significant.

30 Mar

Posted at 21:40h in Author Interviews, Sleep Disorders
 MedicalResearch.com Interview with Matt T. Bianchi MD PhD MMSc Assistant Professor Department of Neurology Director, Sleep Division Massachusetts General HospitalMatt T. Bianchi MD PhD MMSc Assistant Professor Department of Neurology Director, Sleep Division Massachusetts General Hospital MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Bianchi: We showed that patients reporting symptoms of insomnia tend to under-estimate the amount of time they slept during overnight sleep testing in our clinical sleep laboratory.

27 Mar

Posted at 13:16h in Author Interviews, Sleep Disorders
 MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Christer Hublin Apulaisylilääkäri, neurologian dosentti (Helsingin yliopisto) - Assistant Chief Medical Officer, Docent (Adjunct Professor) in Neurology (Helsinki University) Unilääketieteen erityispätevyys (Suomen lääkäriliitto) Sleep medicine specialist (NOSMAC/ESRS) Työterveyslaitos - Finnish Institute of Occupational Health FIN-00250 Helsinki Finland MedicalResearch.com What are the main findings of the study? Answer: We found in an adult twin cohort (the Finnish Twin Cohort) that the proportion of variance in sleep length accounted for by genetic effects was relatively low (about one third) but stable (correlation 0.76 over a period of 15 years.). In contrast, the proportion of variance accounted for by environmental effects was high (about 0.7) and these effects were less stable (correlation over the time period 0.18). The proportion of short sleepers was more than doubled in both genders, whereas in the proportion of long sleepers no major change was seen during the follow-up. To our knowledge, this is the first longitudinal study providing data on the contribution of genetic factors to stability and change of sleep length over time.

08 Sep

Posted at 14:30h in Sleep Disorders

Sleep disorders affect 40 percent of Canadians Quebec City, September 8, 2011—Sleep disorders affect 40% of adult Canadians according to a study conducted by Université Laval researchers under the supervision of Dr. Charles M. Morin. The work of Dr. Morin and his colleagues will be presented at the 4th World Congress...