Ebook: Insomnia: A Clinical Guide to Assessment and Treatment

Along with increasing recognition of the consequences and costs of ins- nia, there is growing evidence documenting the effectiveness of cogniti- behavior therapy for insomnia. Yet, there is still a major gap between available evidence and current clinical practice. Much of this gap is due to economics, limited treatment access, and ineffective dissemination of knowledge. There is a definite need for practical materials to facilitate access to and implementation of interventions for insomnia. As scientis- practitioners, we are constantly reminded of this need by frequent requests from clinicians around the world for questionnaires and handouts to assist them in treating insomnia patients. It was during a recent international sleep meeting, more specifically on a trainjourney between Dresden and Prague, that we drafted an outline of a handbook that would help fill this gap. This clinical handbook describes an evidence-based treatment p- gram for insomnia. Its content is based on materials that have been cl- ically tested and validated with patients in various settings and with different subtypes of insomnia. The manual is divided into eight chapters. Chapter 1 presents an introduction to sleep and provides answers to f- quently asked questions about the nature of sleep, its determinants, and about the consequences of sleep loss and insomnia. Chapters 2 and 3 outline the main clinical features of insomnia and differential diagnostic issues and describe a practical approach to the assessment of insomnia complaint.

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This book describes a concise and up-to-date treatment program for insomnia intended for a range of health care providers. In a user-friendly manner it provides empirically-derived and clinically useful treatment procedures, comprising a cost-effective program that can be applied to large numbers of adults with insomnia. This program fits readily into managed care (U.S.) and local health co-operative systems (U.K.), particularly as it offers an alternative to pharmacotherapy.
Chapters cover an introduction to sleep and its disturbance, as well as clear-cut assessment and treatment approaches. Most of the chapters are formatted for consistency and provide regular features in addition to the descriptive text, including clinical vignettes, a checklist of learning outcomes for the clinician, and recommendations for further reading on a given topic. Where applicable, assessment materials are reproduced and interpretation criteria provided. Additional features include guidance notes for the therapist in conducting each session, worksheets for patients to complete, and implementation criteria to increase patient compliance.