New analysis suggests that cognitive behavioral therapy can work for patients whose insomnia is coupled with medical and psychiatric conditions.
Previous meta-analyses have suggested that cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia can improve sleep, although many of these studies excluded individuals with co-existing psychiatric and medical conditions.
Jason C. Ong, Ph.D., of Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, and coauthors reviewed medical literature to examine the efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia in patients with psychiatric conditions (including alcohol dependence, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder) and/or medical conditions (including chronic pain, cancer and fibromyalgia). The authors included 37 studies with data from 2,189 participants in their final analysis.
The meta-analysis by the authors found that, overall, cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia was associated with reducing insomnia symptoms and sleep disturbances in individuals with coexisting conditions. At posttreatment evaluation about twice the percentage patients who received cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia were in remission from insomnia compared those patients in control or comparison groups.
