Self-help Cognitive Behavioral Therapy For Insomnia Research Articles

0336 Tele-Self CBTi: Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial of a Nurse-Supported Self-Management Intervention for Insomnia Disorder

Abstract Introduction Approximately half of all Veterans meet diagnostic criteria for Insomnia Disorder. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBTi) is recommended as first-line treatment but access is limited. Self-help CBTi could increase patient access and is more effective with provider support. Self-help CBTi has not been evaluated in those with significant mental health morbidity or Veterans; a population having greater medical and mental health morbidity and more severe sleep difficulties than non-Veterans. Methods Treatment-seeking Veterans were randomly assigned to 6 sessions of Tele-Self CBTi or Health Education Control (HEC). Nurses without sleep medicine experience were trained to deliver Tele-Self CBTi; the combination of provider support plus professionally designed patient and provider CBTi treatment manuals developed through an iterative process integrating expert and patient feedback. Both arms received nurse phone contacts (≤20 minutes). Outcomes including insomnia severity, subjective and objective sleep parameters, fatigue and mood were assessed at baseline, post-treatment (8 weeks), and 6 months. Results Study participants (N=178) were 55 years of age (SD=13), mostly male (72%), with a mental health condition (83%), and about half African American (43%) and half Caucasian (49%). At post-treatment, Veterans randomized to Tele-Self CBTi realized greater reductions in insomnia severity (ISI estimated mean improvement 5.7 vs 2.0, p<.001) and greater improvements in fatigue and depression symptoms (ps<.04). At 6 months, ISI findings were sustained (5.3 vs. 2.4, p<.001) and more Tele-Self CBTi than HEC participants (32% vs 10%) scored below the cutoff suggestive of insomnia disorder (ISI< 11) (p=.001). Preliminary findings also suggest better post-treatment outcomes for Tele-Self CBTi on sleep diary SOL (25 vs 45 minutes) and WASO (34 vs 55 minutes). Conclusion A self-management CBTi requiring minimal provider resources was effective in reducing insomnia severity in veterans with considerable mental health co-morbidity. Tele-Self CBTi can help bridge the gap between unavailable resources and high demand for services and can serve as the entry level in stepped-care treatment for insomnia disorder. Future research is needed to identify characteristics of patients most likely to benefit from Tele-Self CBTi. Support (if any) Funding was provided by Veterans Affairs Office of Research and Development (CIN 13-410 and IIR 16-281).

Treating depression with a smartphone-delivered self-help cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia: study protocol for a parallel group randomized controlled trial

BackgroundDepression is a major public health concern. Emerging research has shown that cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is effective in treating individuals with comorbid insomnia and depression. Traditional face-to-face CBT-I encounters many obstacles related to feasibility, accessibility, and help-seeking stigma. CBT-I delivered via smartphone application could be a potential solution. This paper reports a protocol designed to evaluate the efficacy of a self-help smartphone-based CBT-I, using a waitlist group as control, for people with major depression and insomnia.MethodsA two-arm parallel randomized controlled trial is conducted in a target sample of 285 non-suicidal Hong Kong Chinese older than 17 years of age with major depression and insomnia. Participants complete an online rapid screening, followed by a telephone diagnostic interview. Those who meet the eligibility criteria are randomized in a ratio of 1:1 to receive either CBT-I immediately or to a waitlist control condition. The CBT-I consists of six weekly modules and is delivered through a smartphone application proACT-S. This smartphone app has been pilot tested and revamped to improve user experience. An online randomized algorithm is used to perform randomization to ensure allocation concealment. The primary outcomes are changes over the measurement points in sleep quality, insomnia severity, and depression severity. The secondary outcomes include changes over the measurement points in anxiety, subjective health, treatment expectancy, and acceptability of treatment. Assessments are administered at baseline, post-intervention, and 6-week follow-up. The recruitment is completed. Important adverse events, if any, are documented. Multilevel linear mixed model based on intention-to-treat principle will be conducted to examine the efficacy of the CBT-I intervention.DiscussionIt is expected that proACT-S is an efficacious brief sleep-focused self-help treatment for people with major depression and insomnia. If proven efficacious, due to its self-help nature, proACT-S may be applicable as a community-based early intervention, thereby reducing the burden of the public healthcare system in Hong Kong.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT04228146. Retrospectively registered on 14 January 2020.

Mobile App Use for Insomnia Self-Management in Urban Community-Dwelling Older Korean Adults: Retrospective Intervention Study.

BackgroundAs an evidence-based psychotherapy for treating insomnia, cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I), which helps people with sleep problems to change their unhelpful sleep-related beliefs and habits, has been well-established in older adults. Recently, the utilization of mobile CBT-I apps has been getting attention from mental health professionals and researchers; however, whether mobile CBT-I apps are usable among older users has yet to be determined.ObjectiveThe aims of this study were to explore the relationships between subjective sleep quality and subjective memory complaints and depressive symptoms; to explore the relationship between perceived difficulty in mobile app use and usability of the mobile phone–based self-help CBT-I app, named MIND MORE, in urban community-dwelling Korean older adults; to compare changes in subjective sleep quality from pre-intervention to post-intervention, during which they used the mobile app over a 1-week intervention period; and evaluate adherence to the app.MethodsDuring the 2-hour training program delivered on 1 day titled “Overcoming insomnia without medication: How to use the ‘MIND MORE’ mobile app for systematic self-management of insomnia” (pre-intervention), 41 attendants were asked to gain hands-on experience with the app facilitated by therapists and volunteer workers. They were then asked to complete questionnaires on sociodemographic characteristics, subjective evaluation of mental health status (ie, depression, memory loss and impairment, and sleep problems), and app usability. For the 1-week home-based self-help CBT-I using the app (post-intervention), 9 of the 41 program attendants, who had already signed up for the pre-intervention, were guided to complete the given questionnaires on subjective evaluation of sleep quality after the 1-week intervention, specifically 8 days after the training program ended.ResultsDue to missing data, 40 of 41 attendants were included in the data analysis. The main findings of this study were as follows. First, poor subjective sleep quality was associated with higher ratings of depressive symptoms (40/40; ρ=.60, P<.001) and memory complaints (40/40; ρ=.46, P=.003) at baseline. Second, significant improvements in subjective sleep quality from pre-intervention to post-intervention were observed in the older adults who used the MIND MORE app only for the 1-week intervention period (9/9; t8=3.74, P=.006). Third, apart from the program attendants who did not have a smartphone (2/40) or withdrew from their MIND MORE membership (3/40), those who attended the 1-day sleep education program adhered to the app from at least 2 weeks (13/35, 37%) to 8 weeks (2/35, 6%) without any further contact.ConclusionsThis study provides empirical evidence that the newly developed MIND MORE app not only is usable among older users but also could improve subjective sleep quality after a 1-week self-help intervention period.

Low-Intensity Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia as the Entry of the Stepped-Care Model in the Community: A Randomized Controlled Trial

ABSTRACT Background/Objectives: Diverse low-intensity interventions are available as the entry points in the stepped-care model for insomnia. The study aims to compare a single-session cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBTI) workshop, self-help CBTI and sleep hygiene education (SHE) workshop among adults with insomnia in the community, in terms of insomnia severity, anxiety and depressive symptoms, the quality of life, treatment adherence and credibility. Participants: Two-hundred-and-ten Hong Kong adults with DSM-5 defined insomnia disorder for at least one month were recruited in the community. Methods: A three-arm-parallel, active-treatment-controlled and assessor-blinded randomized controlled trial was performed. Participants were block-randomized to the half-day CBTI workshop, self-help Internet-delivered CBTI and half-day SHE workshop groups evenly. Eight-week and 16-week post-baseline follow-ups were conducted. The primary outcome measure was the Insomnia Severity Index whereas the secondary measures included the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, the Short-Form Six-Dimension Health Survey, treatment adherence and credibility. Results: All arms demonstrated a significant treatment effect on insomnia severity, anxiety and depressive symptoms and the quality of life. However, there was no difference between arms. Treatment adherence did not vary among the three groups, but treatment credibility of the self-help group dropped whereas that of the CBTI workshop group rose after interventions (p = .037). Conclusions: Despite the lack of between-group differences, self-help CBTI can be considered as the preferred entry point of the stepped-care model for insomnia. It demonstrates comparable efficacy and adherence rate to the workshop-based interventions, and is highly accessible and convenient with few resources required.

Predictors of dropout from internet-based self-help cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia

Dropout from self-help cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) potentially diminishes therapeutic effect and poses clinical concern. We analyzed the characteristics of subjects who did not complete a 6-week internet-based CBT-I program. Receiver operator characteristics (ROC) analysis was used to identify potential variables and cutoff for predicting dropout among 207 participants with self-report insomnia 3 or more nights per week for at least 3 months randomly assigned to self-help CBT-I with telephone support (n = 103) and self-help CBT-I (n = 104). Seventy-two participants (34.4%) did not complete all 6 sessions, while 42 of the 72 (56.9%) dropped out prior to the fourth session. Significant predictors of non-completion are total sleep time (TST) ≥ 6.82 h, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale depression score ≥ 9 and Insomnia Severity Index score < 13 at baseline in this ranking order. Only TST ≥ 5.92 h predicts early dropout. Longer TST and less severe insomnia predict dropout in this study of self-help CBT-I, in contrast to shorter TST as a predictor in 2 studies of face-to-face CBT-I, while greater severity of depression predicts dropout in both this study and a study of face-to-face CBT-I. Strategies for minimizing dropout from internet-based CBT-I are discussed.

A randomized controlled trial of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia: an effective treatment for comorbid insomnia and depression.

Insomnia and depression are highly comorbid conditions that show a complex, bidirectional relationship. This study examined whether cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) delivered by a therapist compared with self-help CBT-I (written materials only) reduces insomnia and depression severity in individuals with comorbid insomnia and depression. A total of 41 participants (18-64 years; 25 females) with comorbid depression and insomnia, treated with antidepressants for at least 6 weeks, were randomized to receive 4 sessions of either CBT-I or self-help CBT-I over 8 weeks. Insomnia (Insomnia Severity Index [ISI]) and depression (Beck Depression Inventory-II [BDI-II]) were assessed at baseline, following each session, and at 3-month follow-up. Secondary outcomes were sleep quality and duration (actigraphy and diaries), anxiety, fatigue, and daytime sleepiness. Compared with self-help CBT-I, BDI-II scores in the CBT-I group dropped by 11.93 (95% confidence interval [CI] [6.60, 17.27], p < .001) more points, and ISI scores dropped by 6.59 (95% CI [3.04, 10.15], p = .001) more points across treatment. At 3-month follow-up, 61.1% of CBT-I participants were in clinical remission from their insomnia and depression, compared with 5.6% of the self-help group. CBT-I administered by a therapist produced significant reductions in both insomnia and depression severity posttreatment and at follow-up, compared with a control condition in which participants received only written CBT-I material. Targeting insomnia through CBT-I is efficacious for treating comorbid insomnia and depression, and should be considered an important adjunct therapy for patients with depression whose symptoms have not remitted through antidepressant treatment.

Weekly brief phone support in self-help cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia disorder: Relevance to adherence and efficacy

Self-help cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is an acceptable, low-intensity treatment in a stepped care model for insomnia. We tested the application of self-help CBT-I in a Chinese population. 312 participants with self-report of insomnia associated with distress or daytime impairment 3 or more nights per week for at least 3 months were randomized to self-help CBT-I with telephone support (SHS), self-help CBT-I (SH) and waiting-list (WL). The program was Internet-based with treatment materials delivered once per week, and lasted for 6 consecutive weeks, while the telephone support was limited to 15 min weekly. Mixed-effects analyses found significant group by time interaction in sleep and sleep-related cognitions at immediate and 4-week posttreatment. Post-hoc pairwise comparison with WL revealed that both SHS and SH had significantly higher sleep efficiency at immediate (p = .004 and p = .03, respectively) and 4-week posttreatment (p = .002 and p = .02, respectively) and lower insomnia and dysfunctional beliefs scores. The SHS group had additional improvements in sleep onset latency and sleep quality. Benefits with self-help CBT-I were maintained at 12-week posttreatment, but attrition rate was about 35%. Internet-based self-help CBT-I was effective and acceptable for treating insomnia in the Chinese population. A brief telephone support further enhanced the efficacy.

Testing two types of self-help CBT-I for insomnia in older adults with arthritis or coronary artery disease.

The present study tested two methods of self-help cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) for 106 older adults (mean age = 68) with osteoarthritis (n = 33) or coronary artery disease (n = 33) or no significant medical condition (n = 40). The latter was employed as a comparison group to test the differential efficacy between primary and comorbid insomnia. Self-help CBT-I has demonstrated efficacy in previous studies, so two treatments were compared rather than employing a no treatment control group. Participants were randomly assigned to a book version or an enhanced multimedia version of CBT-I. Both versions of CBT-I demonstrated efficacy in improving all measures of sleep at posttreatment, using intent-to-treat analyses. These sleep improvements were maintained among 86 treatment completers who participated in 1-year follow-up assessment. There were no significant differences in treatment response between primary (no medical condition) and comorbid insomnia participants and no significant differences between the two types of self-help according to sleep log measure. However, multimedia participants compared to book participants showed more improvement on three global sleep measures administered at posttreatment only. Although outcomes were attenuated relative to those obtained in therapist led intervention studies, the results suggest that self-help CBT-I has good potential to serve as a first-line, cost-effective treatment for both primary and comorbid insomnia in older adults.