From Psychiatric News Alert on 11/24/21
Cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) may help to prevent depression in older adults with insomnia disorder, according to a report published today in JAMA Psychiatry.
“Insomnia, occurring in nearly 50% of persons 60 years or older, contributes to a 2-fold greater risk of major depression,” wrote Michael R. Irwin, M.D., of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and colleagues. “In this trial of older adults without depression but with insomnia disorder, delivery of CBT-I prevented incident and recurrent major depressive disorder by more than 50% compared with [sleep education therapy], an active comparator.”
Sleep deprivation cause depression and depression causes sleep deprivation. Which comes first, the chicken or the egg? Whichever it is, the sleep deprivation needs to be addressed and ameliorated so that over all physical and mental functioning can be improved.
There are many ways for sleep deprivation to be assessed and treated. Perhaps a sleep study is in order to rule out sleep apnea. Perhaps a mental health assessment is in order to rule out stress which is causing sleeplessness.
In the study referenced in this article it was found that Cognitive Behavioral Psychotherapy helped prevent intensification of depression.
