The clinical relevance of early identification and treatment of sleep disorders in mental health care: protocol of a randomized control trial

Abstract

Background: Sleep disorders are a risk factor for developing a variety of mental disorders, have a negative impact on their remission rates and increase the risk of relapse. Early identification and treatment of sleep disorders is therefore of paramount importance. Unfortunately, in mental health care sleep disorders are often poorly recognized and specific treatment frequently occurs late or not at all. This protocol-paper presents a randomized controlled trial investigating the clinical relevance of early detection and treatment of sleep disorders in mental health care. The two aims of this project are 1) to determine the prevalence of sleep disorders in different mental disorders, and 2) to investigate the contribution of early identification and adequate treatment of sleep disorders in individuals with mental disorders to their sleep, mental disorder symptoms, general functioning, and quality of life. Methods: Patients newly referred to a Dutch mental health institute for psychiatric treatment will be screened for sleep disorders with the self-assessment Holland Sleep Disorders Questionnaire (HSDQ). Patients scoring above the cutoff criteria will be invited for additional diagnostic evaluation and, treatment of the respective sleep disorder. Participants will be randomly assigned to two groups: Immediate sleep diagnostics and intervention (TAU+SI-T0), or delayed start of sleep intervention (TAU+SI-T1; 6 months after inclusion). The effect of sleep treatment as add-on to treatment as usual (TAU) will be tested with regard to sleep disorder symptoms, general functioning, and quality of life (in collaboration with a psychiatric sleep centre). Discussion: This trial will examine the prevalence of different sleep disorders in a broad range of mental disorders, providing information on the co-occurrence of specific sleep and mental disorders. Further, this study is the first to investigate the impact of early treatment of sleep disorders on the outcome of many mental disorders. Moreover, standard sleep interventions will be tailored to specific mental disorders, to increase their efficacy. The results of this trial may contribute considerably to the improvement of mental health care.

Using a Loneliness Measure to Screen for Risk of Mental Health Problems: A Replication in Two Nationally Representative Cohorts

“…The cohort is primarily white (93%), matching South Island demographics [18]. Assessments were carried out at birth and ages 3,5,7,9,11,13,15,18,21,26,32,38 and most recently (completed April 2019) 45 years, when 94.1% (n = 938) of the 997 participants still alive took part. At each assessment, participants were brought to the research unit for interviews and examinations.…”

“…Moreover, loneliness is associated with poorer clinical outcomes among groups of people who receive treatment for mental health problems [3]. Loneliness may also be of interest to clinicians as a valuable individual risk indicator for psychopathology, as it is analogous to sleep problems or difficulties with concentration, which are present in a number of disorders and are included in widely used screening checklists such as the Patient Health Questionnaire and the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale [4][5][6]. Though not all individuals who experience loneliness will have co-occurring mental health problems, there is potential scope to utilise a loneliness measure alongside other information as part of a screening tool [7].…”

Development of a classifier to screen for severe sleep disorders in children

“…In conclusion, we expect that the classifier developed in this study will facilitate the screening of children's sleep disorders in multiple situations. A previous study showed that early detection and treatment of sleep disorders aided the treatment of mental disorders (34); therefore, use of the classifier may help improve mental status. In the future, we will further improve the accuracy of the automatic classifier by incorporating machinelearning techniques.…”

Insomnia Among Covid-19 Patients During Isolation Treatment in Inpatient Room of Indonesian Health Care Facilities

“…5 Representation of mental health disorders could be seen in patients with moans of sleeping difficulty. 9 Weak physical conditions caused insomnia in Covid-19 patients. Insomnia was more influenced by psychological conditions when the virus infected the patient.…”