DOI
https://doi.org/10.25772/RDPM-H495
Defense Date
2009
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Department
Psychology
First Advisor
Steven Danish
Abstract
Psychiatric patients are particularly affected by symptoms of insomnia. Because insomnia is often secondary to other conditions and was once thought to be less treatable, this condition has received little attention in terms of treatment and research. Additionally, psychiatric patients have typically fewer resources to seek treatment. Generally, insomnia is treated with medications that may have biological side effects and offer little restorative sleep. Behavioral or cognitive interventions have often been overlooked. This experiment uses profile analysis to test the hypothesis that psychiatric outpatients randomized to a treatment group would have decreased levels of sleep difficulties (measured by PSQI) when levels of depression (measured by PHQ-9) were held constant compared to participants in a control/wait group. Also, it was hypothesized that levels of depression would decrease in the treatment group when initial levels of sleep difficulties were held constant compared to participants in a wait group. Levels of sleep difficulty were found to be significantly lower in the treatment group than the wait group at post and follow up. Levels of depression were found to be significantly lower in the treatment group than in the wait group at post and follow up. The treatment group received one, 50-minute, individual therapy session that addressed sleep hygiene, stimulus control and sleep restriction activities and also received an additional telephone session two weeks later. These findings suggest that providing behavioral and cognitive interventions may be a feasible alternative to using pharmacological interventions as a first-line treatment for insomnia.
Rights
© The Author
Is Part Of
VCU University Archives
Is Part Of
VCU Theses and Dissertations
Date of Submission
May 2009