Better Sleep in Psychiatric Care - ADHD. (BSIP-ADHD)

Better Sleep in Psychiatric Care - ADHD. A Randomized Naturalistic Study of a Psychological Group Treatment for Sleep Problems in Psychiatric Patients With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is treatment of choice for insomnia (CBT-i). Many patients in psychiatric care have sleep problems including insomnia, but are rarely given the choice to participate in CBT to improve their sleep. Patients with ADHD is a patient group with high levels of sleep difficulties. Sleep problems in this patient group can be both more general such as insomnia, but can also be related to the ADHD itself and to the use of ADHD medication. In a previous pilot study, the investigators developed a version of CBT-i that would target sleep problems in this population. The basis was CBT-i, but with more emphasis on sleep promoting behaviors specific to ADHD (e.g. appropriate timing of ADHD-medication), techniques that would also alleviate sleep phase problems, (e.g. the systematic use of light and darkness), and techniques to target more general sleep disturbing habits (e.g. not winding down before bed time), that are also common in patients with ADHD. This treatment was well tolerated and gave moderate effects on insomnia severity in the pilot study. In a naturalistic randomized controlled trial, the investigators now evaluate the effects of this psychological treatment on sleep and symptoms of ADHD in patients at the ADHD-clinics, Northern Stockholm Psychiatry, Sweden.

Cognitive Behavioral group intervention for sleep problems in ADHD, based on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for insomnia and behavioral treatment for Sleep Phase Disorders.

Treatment as Usual. (After about ten weeks, participants in this condition are offered the experimental group treatment.)

This is a version of CBT for insomnia (CBT-i) developed during the pilot phase of this Project. Traditional CBT-i is adjusted for use in the adult ADHD population. This behavioral intervention adresses not only traditional aspects of insomnia, but also sleep phase problems and other aspects of sleep specifically relevant to the ADHD-population. Treatment is given as 10 weekly group sessions with telephone calls from the therapist between sessions to increase adherence and adress individual patient needs.

Usual care at the ADHD-clinic. This mostly entails managing pharmacological treatment for ADHD, comorbid psychiatric problems and/or sleep problems. The clinic also provides different group treatments, for instance mindfulness groups and groups for developing behavioral strategies for managing ADHD symptoms, and individual therapy.

An actigraph is placed on the participant's arm for one week. It measures participants' activity in the form of movements. It can be used for acquiring data on sleep and daytime activity, including calculated sleep latency, total sleep time, sleep efficiency, wake after sleep onset, variability in sleep timing and daytime activity.

Daily self-ratings on a number of sleep parameters, resulting in several measures including sleep latency, wake after sleep onset, total sleep time, sleep efficiency, subjective sleep quality and variability in sleep timing

Self-rating questionnaire regarding the use of sleep promoting behaviors. The questionnaire was constructed for the current project and consists of two parts. The first part includes 16 statements such as "Last week I got out of bed within 15 minutes of waking up" to be answered by number of days the last week this was true (i.e. from 0 to 7). The other part is to be answered on a 6-point Likert scale from "Not at all true" to "Entirely true", with 7 statements like "I get out of bed the same time every morning".

Inclusion Criteria: Being a patient at the ADHD-clinics Northern Stockholm Psychiatry Experiencing sleep problems (subjective report) Exclusion Criteria: None

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