Treating primary insomnia: clinical effectiveness and predictors of outcomes on sleep, daytime function and health-related quality of life.

Primary insomnia, as defined by DSM-IV-TR, refers to a persistent sleep disturbance which is not connected to a current psychiatric or physical condition, but significantly impairs social and occupational functioning. This study explored the impact of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-i) on sleep, daytime functioning and health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Next, we investigated which factors predicted positive treatment outcome by examining demographics, insomnia characteristics, baseline levels of daytime function, HRQoL, sleep-disruptive beliefs and psychological health on post-treatment sleep quality, daytime function and HRQoL. 138 consecutive primary insomnia patients completed questionnaires pre- and post-treatment and at 6 months follow-up. After CBT-i, robust clinical improvements were observed in sleep, daytime function and HRQoL, regardless of age, gender, type or duration of the complaint. Patients with pre-treatment severe insomnia, pronounced daytime impairment and low psychological well-being benefited most.

[Cognitive-behavioural therapy for primary insomnia: effectiveness in a clinical setting]. / Cognitieve gedragstherapie voor primaire insomnia: effectiviteit in een klinische setting.

BACKGROUND: The effectiveness of cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (cbt-i) has been demonstrated in randomised controlled trials (rct's) with primary insomnia patients and, more recently, with comorbid insomnia patients. The clinical impact of the treatment is mainly on sleep quality and the use of medication and to a lesser extent on daytime functioning. So far there have been very few studies of the effectiveness of cbt-i in clinical settings. AIM: To examine the effectiveness of cbt-i for primary insomnia via an uncontrolled prospective study in a clinical tertiary care setting. METHOD: We included 76 patients with primary insomnia, most of whom having been referred by their gp or medical specialist to the Leuven University Centre of Sleep, who followed a 6-week course of cbt-i as a group. Effects of cbt-i on primary and secondary outcome measures were studied. results cbt-i resulted in a significant improvement in all primary sleep variables such as sleep onset, sleep efficiency and sleep quality. The increase in total sleep time was less substantial, probably as a result of the specific sleep restriction guidelines. There was also a significant improvement on several secondary parameters, in particular dysfunctional cognitions, affective state, general health and use of medication. CONCLUSIONS: cbt-i has a significant impact on sleep quality, medication use and daytime functioning in primary insomniacs in a clinical tertiary care setting.

Victimization in chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia in tertiary care: a controlled study on prevalence and characteristics.

The authors studied the prevalence and characteristics of different forms of victimization in 95 patients suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) or fibromyalgia (FM) compared with a chronic disease group, including rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, and a matched healthy control group. The authors assessed prevalence rates, nature of victimization (emotional, physical, sexual), life period of occurrence, emotional impact, and relationship with the perpetrator by a self-report questionnaire on burdening experiences. CFS and FM patients showed significantly higher prevalences of emotional neglect and abuse and of physical abuse, with a considerable subgroup experiencing lifelong victimization. The family of origin and the partner were the most frequent perpetrators. With the exception of sexual abuse, victimization was more severely experienced by the CFS/FM group. No differences were found between healthy control subjects or RA/MS patients, and between CFS and FM patients. These findings support etiological hypotheses suggesting a pivotal role for chronic stress in CFS and FM and may have important therapeutic implications.