Many children and adolescents with chronic physical or mental health conditions have difficulties falling asleep, waking up during the night or too early in the morning, and feeling excessively sleepy during the day. These types of sleep complaints are categorized as insomnia symptoms.
Problems with sleep are not benign for these youth, making children more irritable and anxious, and leading to symptom exacerbations. For example, in a prior study conducted by Palermo, Law, Churchill, and Walker (2012) in youth with chronic pain conditions, increased insomnia symptoms were related to greater depressive symptoms and decrements in overall quality of life. Getting enough sleep and good quality sleep are important for all youth but have additional implications for youth coping with co-occurring medical or mental health conditions.
Medication is not usually a long-term solution for helping children or adolescents get good quality sleep and carries with it risks for adverse side effects. In adults with chronic conditions, a psychological treatment called Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) has shown effectiveness for reducing insomnia symptoms. However, CBT-I has not been well studied in pediatric populations, especially in children who have co-occurring medical or mental health conditions.
In an article recently published in Clinical Practice in Pediatric Psychology, Palermo et al. (2016) describe a new CBT-I treatment program that they developed for treating insomnia symptoms in youth with co-occurring medical or mental health conditions.
High levels of feasibility and acceptability of the new CBT-I treatment were shown in a sample of 40 youth (ages 11 to 18 years) with a range of physical and psychiatric comorbidities (e.g., depression, chronic pain, anxiety). Future work from this group will focus on evaluating the effectiveness of the CBT-I treatment in reducing insomnia symptoms and the impact of health-related symptoms.
Citations:
- Palermo, T.M., Law, E.F., Churchill, S., Walker, A. (2012). Longitudinal course and impact of insomnia symptoms in adolescents with and without chronic pain. Journal of Pain, 13: 1099–106.
- Palermo, T. M., Bromberg, M. H., Beals-Erickson, S., Law, E. F., Durkin, L., Noel, M., & Chen, M. (2016). Development and initial feasibility testing of brief cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia in adolescents with comorbid conditions. Clinical Practice in Pediatric Psychology, 4(2), 214–226. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/cpp0000140
Note: This article is in the Clinical Psychology topic area. View more articles in the Clinical Psychology topic area.