Guest guest Posted April 22, 2001 Report Share Posted April 22, 2001 To All, FYI. Larry NV Cognitive Behavioral Therapy A Viable Treatment Option For Insomnia ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- WESTPORT, CT (Reuters Health) Apr 12 - Study results suggest that cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can be an effective and long-lasting approach for people with persistent primary insomnia, a form of insomnia characterized by the inability to stay asleep. Dr. Jack D. Edinger and colleagues, from the VA Medical Center and Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, report the finding in the April 11th issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association. " Physicians should take home [from this study] the fact that insomnia patients who have trouble staying asleep through the night can be helped to sleep better without sleeping pills, " Dr. Edinger told Reuters Health. " Our cognitive behavioral therapy appears effective for this type of sleep problem. " Dr. Edinger's team studied 75 men and women with long-standing persistent primary insomnia not due to psychiatric, medical or substance abuse problems. The participants were randomized to cognitive therapy and strategies designed to improve sleep habits and limit time in bed, to progressive muscle relaxation training, or to " quasi-desensitization " treatment. CBT produced far greater improvements in the majority of outcome measures than did muscle relaxation training or sham desensitization treatment, the team reports. " Only the CBT group showed both subjective and objective sleep time increases through treatment. " These improvements were evident within 6 weeks of treatment and appeared to endure through 6 months of follow-up. CBT patients enjoyed a 54% reduction in their " wake time after sleep onset " score, compared with reductions of only 16% and 12% in this key measure in the relaxation and placebo groups, respectively. After the trial, " the average CBT recipient reported [using sleep logs] a middle wake time after sleep onset of less than 30 minutes, a level regarded as normal, " the researchers note. Neither of the other two groups achieved this milestone. JAMA 2001;285:1856-1864. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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