If you are one of the estimated 10 percent of people suffering from insomnia in the U.S, then you may have tried sleeping pills and medication to help you get your full amount of shut-eye.
However a new study conducted by the American College of Physicians has revealed that insomnia-related conditions are more successfully treated with regular therapy and counselling and should be tried before considering the medication route.
The experts say that cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) which involves talking with a therapist and implementing behavioral techniques could help those with chronic insomnia, according to UPI. If the course of therapy has little impact then patients should then discuss the possibilities of medication.
The study was based on data from 10 years of study in order to fully see the long-term effects that CBT has on sleep-deprived conditions. The results showed that CBT had a significant positive effect on sleep patterns in people with chronic insomnia.
The study aims to improve and re-evaluate new guidelines into the treatment of insomnia and will also expect to see a decrease in costs to the health care system. The president of the American College of Physicians, Dr Wayne Riley believes that too many people are being over-subscribed medication for conditions that could be dealt with in more effective ways.
“We know chronic insomnia is a real problem that patients present within our [doctors’] offices. We want to get away from the overtendency to prescribe sleep medications, and clearly CBT can be a very nice tool in the toolkit.”
Sleep medications can have the potential to cause long-term damaging effects which experts and doctors want to avoid. Using CBT will empower patients to naturally take control and tackle their sleep problems and therefore increasing their overall well-being and experts want to at least give patients an opportunity to trial the new course of treatment.
“We looked at [the issue] very broadly; we don’t say don’t use a medication, we say, give your patient a trial… and if they come back still having problems sleeping, maybe add short-term use of a medication. We try to counsel against using [medication] longer than 10 to 14 days because we know dependence can be an issue.”
The new guidelines have been published this week in Annals of Internal Medicine.