Treating People With Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder With Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia

This study will test the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia in treating sleep disturbances in people with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Cognitive behavioral therapy to treat insomnia (CBT-I) was developed for people with primary insomnia but has been successfully used to treat insomnia in people with other disorders. Insomnia is the most commonly reported complaint of patients receiving treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Medications are not effective in treating insomnia in people with PTSD, and behavioral treatments, like CBT-I, have not yet been proven effective in these cases. This study will test the effectiveness of CBT-I in alleviating insomnia in people with PTSD. Participation in this study will last 10 months. At study entry, participants will complete a series of eligibility assessments, including a clinical interview, a medical screening, a urine screening for drugs of abuse, a blood test, and a pregnancy test. Then, over 1 week, participants will complete baseline assessments of sleep behaviors. The assessments will include the following: filling out a set of questionnaires about health, mood, sleeping patterns, possible life trauma, and PTSD; filling out a sleep diary every morning to record time slept, times woken up, nightmares, and quality of sleep; wearing a wristwatch-like device, called an Actigraph, that records activity level during wakefulness and sleep; completing a 5-minute psychomotor vigilance task twice a day on a personal digital assistant (PDA); wearing a sensor connected to the finger that detects sleep apnea, called an Oximeter, 1 night while sleeping; and, during the last 2 nights of sleep assessment, having a sleep recorder connected to one's head to measure different stages of sleep. After the week of sleep assessments, participants will be randomly assigned to one of two groups: the CBT-I group or the waitlist group. Participants in the CBT-I group will complete eight weekly therapy sessions targeted at improving quality of sleep and resolving problems with falling and staying asleep. Participants in the waitlist group will not be offered CBT-I treatment until after 8 weeks. During these 8 weeks, all participants will continue to keep a sleep diary, continue wearing the Actigraph, and, in the fourth week, be asked to fill out a questionnaire booklet with similar questions to those completed in the eligibility screening. After 8 weeks, participants will repeat all the sleep assessments performed at baseline. They will also undergo a clinical interview to assess the severity of PTSD symptoms and sleep problems. After the second set of sleep assessments, the waitlist group will be offered CBT-I, and the CBT-I group will complete 6- and 12-month follow-up assessments. These follow-up assessments will involve repeating both the sleep assessments and the clinical interview performed after the 8-week intervention.

CBT-I includes strategies and instructions targeted toward improving the quality of sleep and resolving problems falling and staying asleep

In a self-report sleep diary, participants were asked to report the length of time it takes from lying down for the night until sleep onset. This outcome consists of the posttreatment (CBT-I) or post-waitlist diary entry; In other words, each of the values below was measured at 8 weeks.

WASO was the sum of wake time during sleep as recorded in a self-report sleep diary, and as measured in epochs (30 seconds of polysomnography [PSG]) recording) after the onset of persistent sleep and prior to final awakening and wake time after sleep (the number of epochs after the final awakening until the end of PSG recording [i.e. awake epoch immediately prior to the end of the recording]). This outcome consists of posttreatment (CBT-I) or post-waitlist diary entries and polysomnography data; In other words, each of the values below was measured at 8 weeks.

SE, as determined by polysomnography (PSG) and by self-reported sleep diary, was the total sleep time (TST) divided by the time in bed, multiplied by 100. This outcome consists of posttreatment (CBT-I) or post-waitlist diary entries and polysomnography data; In other words, each of the values below was measured at 8 weeks.

Inclusion Criteria: Chronic PTSD for at least 3 months Currently on first line treatment for PTSD, defined as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) therapy, for at least 6 months Persistent residual insomnia Exclusion Criteria: Conditions or substances that may be associated with comorbid insomnia independent of PTSD

Kanady JC, Talbot LS, Maguen S, Straus LD, Richards A, Ruoff L, Metzler TJ, Neylan TC. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia Reduces Fear of Sleep in Individuals With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. J Clin Sleep Med. 2018 Jul 15;14(7):1193-1203. doi: 10.5664/jcsm.7224.

Talbot LS, Maguen S, Metzler TJ, Schmitz M, McCaslin SE, Richards A, Perlis ML, Posner DA, Weiss B, Ruoff L, Varbel J, Neylan TC. Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia in posttraumatic stress disorder: a randomized controlled trial. Sleep. 2014 Feb 1;37(2):327-41. doi: 10.5665/sleep.3408.