Meta-analysis of benzodiazepine use in the treatment of insomnia

OBJECTIVE: To systematically review the benefits and risks associated with the use of benzodiazepines to treat insomnia in adults. DATA SOURCES: MEDLINE and the Cochrane Controlled Trials Registry were searched for English-language articles published from 1966 to December 1998 that described randomized controlled trials of benzodiazepines for the treatment of insomnia. Key words included "benzodiazepines" (exploded), "randomized controlled trial" and "insomnia." Bibliographies of relevant articles were reviewed for additional studies and manufacturers of benzodiazepines were asked to submit additional randomized controlled trial reports not in the literature. STUDY SELECTION: Articles were considered for the meta-analysis if they were randomized controlled trials involving patients with insomnia and compared a benzodiazepine with placebo or another active agent. Of the 89 trials originally identified, 45 met our criteria, representing a total of 2672 patients. DATA EXTRACTION: Data were extracted regarding the participants, the setting, details of the intervention, the outcomes (including adverse effects) and the methodologic quality of the studies. DATA SYNTHESIS: The meta-analyses of sleep records indicated that, when compared with placebo, benzodiazepines decreased sleep latency by 4.2 minutes (non-significant; 95% confidence interval (CI -0.7 to 9.2) and significantly increased total sleep duration by 61.8 minutes (95% CI 37.4 to 86.2). Patient-reported outcomes were more optimistic for sleep latency; those randomized to benzodiazepine treatment estimated a sleep latency decrease of 14.3 minutes (95% CI 10.6 to 18.0). Although more patients receiving benzodiazepine treatment reported adverse effects, especially daytime drowsiness and dizziness or light-headedness (common odds ratio 1.8, 95% CI 1.4 to 2.4), dropout rates for the benzodiazepine and placebo groups were similar. Cognitive function decline including memory impairment was reported in several of the studies. Zopiclone was not found to be superior to benzodiazepines on any of the outcome measures examined. INTERPRETATION: The use of benzodiazepines in the treatment of insomnia is associated with an increase in sleep duration, but this is countered by a number of adverse effects. Additional studies evaluating the efficacy of nonpharmacological interventions would be valuable.     

Circadian rhythms and insomnia

Sleep and Biological Rhythms - Circadian rhythms strongly influence when we are sleepy and when we are alert. If the timing of these rhythms is later than normal, it can contribute to sleep onset...     

The association between work burnout and insomnia: how to prevent workers’ insomnia

Sleep and Biological Rhythms -     

Clinical significance and management of insomnia

Sleep and Biological Rhythms - Several epidemiological studies have shown that more than 20% of the general adult population has symptoms of insomnia, but only about 5% of them are receiving...     

Unbalanced resting-state networks activity in psychophysiological insomnia

Sleep and Biological Rhythms - Psychophysiological insomnia (PI) is a clinical condition characterized by sleep-related disturbing cognitive activity and biased self-related information processing....     

Brief behavioral treatment for insomnia in older adults with late-life treatment-resistant depression and insomnia: a pilot study

Sleep and Biological Rhythms - Brief behavioral treatment for insomnia (BBTI) is an efficacious treatment of insomnia in older adults. Behavioral treatments for insomnia can also improve...     

Cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia reduces ruminative thinking

Sleep and Biological Rhythms -     

Biofeedback and progressive relaxation treatment of sleep-onset insomnia

Previous research suggests that self-defined insomniacs are distinguished from normals by high levels of anxiety and physiological arousal, which might be mitigated by muscle relaxation. This study assessed the relative effects of frontal EMG biofeedback, progressive relaxation, and a placebo set of relaxation exercises on the sleep of 18 onset insomniacs. Each subject was trained in one of these three methods for six half-hour sessions and slept in the laboratory for two consecutive nights before and after training. The experimental groups demonstrated significant decreases in physiological activity during training while changes in the control group were minimal. Reductions in sleep-onset time were: biofeedback group, 29.66 minutes; progressive relaxation group, 22.92 minutes; control group, 2.79 minutes. The experimental groups improved significantly(p<.05) more than the control group, but did not differ from each other. No significant relationships between physiological levels and sleep-onset time were found, which suggests that muscle relaxation alone was not responsible for subjects' improvements. Since 20 minutes of daily practice were required to achieve an approximate 30-minute decrease in sleep-onset time, the practical utility of the methods is questioned.Portions of this paper were presented at the 15th Annual Meeting of the Association for the Psychophysiological Study of Sleep, Edinburgh, July, 1975, and at the 6th Annual Meeting, Biofeedback Research Society, Monterey, California, February, 1975.     

BaSIQS - basic scale on insomnia complaints and quality of sleep: reliability,norms, validity,and accuracy studies,based on clinical and community samples

This research focused on the Basic Scale on Insomnia Symptoms and Quality of Sleep (BaSIQS), formerly validated in undergraduates using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and aimed to expand internal consistency analysis, examine thoroughly its validity, and determine its clinical accuracy. Considering objective and subjective measures, recruiting non-clinical and clinical samples, this research implemented a comprehensive approach to examine convergent and discriminant validity, confirmatory factor analyses, and the BaSIQS sensitivity and specificity. The BaSIQS was filled out along with the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), questions on sleep-wake schedules, Composite Scale of Morningness (CSM) and Brief Symptom Inventory-18 (BSI-18) by 1198 adults, 18–64 years old, plus another 30 who wore actimeters, recruited in community settings. A clinical group of 30 chronic insomnia disorder patients also participated. Cronbach alpha coefficient was 0.80. A two-factor structure was confirmed. The association between BaSIQS and ISI was large, whereas actigraphy correlations were medium or small. Medium to non-significant correlations were found concerning conceptually different self-report measures. Comparing the clinic and control groups, the former showed poorer sleep, with a large effect size. Receiver operating characteristic analysis revealed an area under curve = 0.9, and an optimal cut-off score >15. In conclusion, results on reliability, validity, and accuracy provide support to the utility of the BaSIQS both in community and clinical settings, for research and practical purposes.     

清脑复神液治疗COPD失眠的临床观察

目的:观察中成药清脑复神液(四川中方制药)对COPD失眠的疗效及对呼吸中枢的安全性;方法:将88例病人随机分为2组:治疗组48人给予口服清脑复神液20ml,每日两次治疗,对照组每晚口服VitB1片10mg,共7d.阿森斯失眠量表(AIS)判定疗效,同时查血气分析测定PaO2、PaCO2.结果:治疗组治疗后AIS评分与治疗前比较明显降低(P＜0.01),两组治疗后AIS评分存在显著差异(P＜0.01);对照组治疗前后AIS评分无明显差异(P＞0.05),两组病人治疗后PaO2、PaCO2无明显差异(P＞0.05).结论:清脑复神液能改善COPD失眠患者的睡眠质量,且对COPD患者无明显呼吸抑制作用.     

血清细胞因子与脑卒中后失眠的相关性研究

目的探讨血清细胞因子与脑卒中后失眠的相关性。方法选取我院2014年11月-2015年12月收治的70例脑卒中后失眠且中医辨证为心脾两虚型患者(观察组),同时选取同期脑卒中后非失眠患者70例(对照组)。比较两组患者血清肿瘤坏死因子-α(TNF-α)、白细胞介素-6(IL-6)、白细胞介素-1β(IL-1β)水平,并比较不同程度失眠患者血清TNF-α、IL-6、IL-1β水平。结果观察组PSQI总评分(13.10±3.45)显著高于对照组的(4.23±2.35)(t=17.90,P0.05)。观察组患者IL-6、IL-1β水平均显著高于对照组,TNF-α显著低于对照组,差异具有统计学意义(t=38.56,13.61,14.35,均P0.05)。不同程度睡眠障碍患者TNF-α、IL-6、IL-1β水平比较,差异具有统计学意义(F=8.47,10.36,11.27,均P0.05),且随着睡眠障碍程度的增加,IL-6、IL-1β水平呈上升趋势,TNF-α水平呈下降的趋势。进一步相关性分析结果显示睡眠障碍程度与血清TNF-α水平呈负相关,r=-1.856(P0.05);IL-6、IL-1β水平呈正相关,r=0.720,0.745(均P0.05)。结论细胞因子TNF-α、IL-6、IL-1β与卒中后失眠有显著相关性,在临床工作中对有上述血清细胞因子异常的脑卒中患者给予必要的干预有重要的临床意义。