14 DAY TRIAL // Insomnia is a pervasive public health problem, so researchers are looking for potential ways to address it without resorting to medication everywhere they can. In a new study, scientists at the University of Florida in Gainesville demonstrated that cognitive behavior therapy is effective in reducing the intensity and frequency of symptoms associated with insomnia.
The research group found that as few as three CBT sessions are enough to produce sleep improvements in no less than 86 percent of all insomnia patients. This brief intervention therefore has the potential to help millions of people in need of urgent treatment, PsychCentral reports.
A follow-up study completed six months after the CBT sessions were administered determined that test subjects utilized fewer healthcare resources in the intervening months. Overall, their healthcare-related costs were reduced by around $200 (€145), says principal study investigator Christina McCrae, PhD.
CBT “for insomnia is a highly effective treatment, and this study shows that a relatively brief intervention also may have a positive economic impact. Insomnia remains an under-treated disorder, and brief CBT can help to increase access to care and reduce the burden of insomnia,” she says.
“Each year in the U.S. millions of prescriptions are filled and billions of dollars are spent to treat insomnia. This study reaffirms that cognitive behavioral therapy is clinically effective, and it provides promising new evidence that even brief treatment with CBT may reduce health care utilization costs,” adds Michael T. Smith, PhD.
The expert, who is the president of the Society of Behavioral Sleep Medicine, is also an author on a new paper detailing the findings, which is published in the latest issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. Experts from the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System and Drexel University were also involved in the study.
Each CBT session included sleep education, sleep hygiene, sleep restriction, stimulus control therapy and relaxation exercises components. Some test subjects received only 3 weekly CBT sessions, while others received the full complement of six.
Unlike conventional, drug-based approaches to treating insomnia, cognitive-behavioral therapy has the advantage of producing long-lasting, stable results that require no additional investment on the patient's part.