It’s a Catch-22 that even those with a common cold experience: Illness disrupts sleep. Poor sleep makes the symptoms of the illness worse.
What’s true for a cold also holds for more serious conditions that co-occur with insomnia. Depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, alcohol dependence, fibromyalgia, cancer and chronic pain often give rise to insomnia, just as sleeplessness exacerbates the symptoms of these diseases. Historically, insomnia was considered a symptom of other diseases. Today it is considered an illness in its own right and recognized as an amplifier of other mental and physical ailments. When a person is chronically tired, pain can be more painful, depression deeper, anxiety heightened.
What should doctors address first, insomnia or the co-occurring condition? How about both at the same time? A new study suggests that a therapy that improves sleep also reduces symptoms of other illnesses that often disrupt it.
The study published in JAMA Internal Medicine examined the effect of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia in patients with serious mental and physical conditions. As its name suggests, C.B.T.-I. is a treatment that works through the mind. As I wrote about a few weeks ago, the therapy treats insomnia without medications, combining good sleep hygiene techniques with more consistent wake times, relaxation techniques and positive sleep attitudes and thoughts. Several clinical trials have shown that C.B.T.-I. provides as good or better relief of symptoms of insomnia than prescription drugs, with improvements in sleep that are more durable. C.B.T.-I. can usually be delivered relatively inexpensively through an online course costing about $40.
Compared with those who didn’t receive C.B.T.-I., patients who did increased the time asleep in bed by about 12 percentage points, fell asleep about 25 minutes faster and decreased the amount of time awake in the middle of the night by about 45 minutes, according to Jade Wu, lead study author and a Boston University doctoral student in psychology.
The study also found that slightly more than one in three patients who received C.B.T.-I. recovered from insomnia, compared with only about one in six in control groups who did not receive C.B.T.-I. As medical treatments go, this is an exceedingly high cure rate. Reflecting its strong performance in clinical trials, C.B.T.-I. is recommended by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine as the first-line treatment for insomnia.
Analyzing data across 2,189 patients, collected in 37 randomized trials, the researchers found that C.B.T.-I. is also helpful for those with chronic mental or physical illnesses. The researchers found that when insomnia is treated with C.B.T.-I., symptoms of some other illnesses abate, too, at least somewhat. It was found to reduce alcohol use in alcoholics, decrease symptoms of depression, reduce severity of P.T.S.D. symptoms, alleviate fatigue in breast cancer patients and reduce chronic pain.
For those who are both chronically tired and chronically sick, the route to additional relief of both may be through the mind.
Source : nytimes
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What’s true for a cold also holds for more serious conditions that co-occur with insomnia. Depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, alcohol dependence, fibromyalgia, cancer and chronic pain often give rise to insomnia, just as sleeplessness exacerbates the symptoms of these diseases. Historically, insomnia was considered a symptom of other diseases. Today it is considered an illness in its own right and recognized as an amplifier of other mental and physical ailments. When a person is chronically tired, pain can be more painful, depression deeper, anxiety heightened.
What should doctors address first, insomnia or the co-occurring condition? How about both at the same time? A new study suggests that a therapy that improves sleep also reduces symptoms of other illnesses that often disrupt it.
The study published in JAMA Internal Medicine examined the effect of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia in patients with serious mental and physical conditions. As its name suggests, C.B.T.-I. is a treatment that works through the mind. As I wrote about a few weeks ago, the therapy treats insomnia without medications, combining good sleep hygiene techniques with more consistent wake times, relaxation techniques and positive sleep attitudes and thoughts. Several clinical trials have shown that C.B.T.-I. provides as good or better relief of symptoms of insomnia than prescription drugs, with improvements in sleep that are more durable. C.B.T.-I. can usually be delivered relatively inexpensively through an online course costing about $40.
Compared with those who didn’t receive C.B.T.-I., patients who did increased the time asleep in bed by about 12 percentage points, fell asleep about 25 minutes faster and decreased the amount of time awake in the middle of the night by about 45 minutes, according to Jade Wu, lead study author and a Boston University doctoral student in psychology.
The study also found that slightly more than one in three patients who received C.B.T.-I. recovered from insomnia, compared with only about one in six in control groups who did not receive C.B.T.-I. As medical treatments go, this is an exceedingly high cure rate. Reflecting its strong performance in clinical trials, C.B.T.-I. is recommended by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine as the first-line treatment for insomnia.
Analyzing data across 2,189 patients, collected in 37 randomized trials, the researchers found that C.B.T.-I. is also helpful for those with chronic mental or physical illnesses. The researchers found that when insomnia is treated with C.B.T.-I., symptoms of some other illnesses abate, too, at least somewhat. It was found to reduce alcohol use in alcoholics, decrease symptoms of depression, reduce severity of P.T.S.D. symptoms, alleviate fatigue in breast cancer patients and reduce chronic pain.
For those who are both chronically tired and chronically sick, the route to additional relief of both may be through the mind.
Source : nytimes
We Are Fossasia Stay Connected With Us On Twitter . . . ! ! !
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