Ewha Med J.  2013 Sep;36(2):84-92. 10.12771/emj.2013.36.2.84.

Current Clinical Practice of Insomnia

Affiliations
  • 1Department of Psychiatry, Ewha Womans University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea. psyweon@ewha.ac.kr

Abstract

Insomnia is one of the most common sleep disorders, which is leading to significant clinical distress and impairment of daytime functioning and decreasing quality of life. This article reviews the current clinical treatment options of insomnia. Non-pharmacological treatment including stimulus control, sleep restriction, cognitive therapy, relaxation training, and education of sleep hygiene should be considered first for treatment of insomnia. Psychological and behavioral interventions tend to have longer-lasting treatment benefits, while drugs show immediate improvement of sleep disturbance. In pharmacotherapy, benzodiazepine receptor agonist, melatonin receptor antagonist, and 'off-label' drugs to treat insomnia are reviewed.

Keyword

Behavior therapy; Cognitive therapy; Drug therapy; Insomnia

MeSH Terms

Behavior Therapy
Cognitive Therapy
Drug Therapy
Quality of Life
Relaxation
Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders*
Sleep Wake Disorders
Receptors, GABA-A
Receptors, Melatonin

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