Abstract

ASSESSMENT OF INSOMNIA IN PSYCHIATRY OUTPATIENTS

Dr. Jeffin James*, Dr. Devi Manoj, Dr. R Aiswarya Krishnan, Dr. Manasi Thalakkat Muralidharan, Meppil Baby and Dr. Beena P.

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Abstract

Insomnia is being considered as one of the major sleep disorder and as separate entities that can co-occur with other disorders, including psychiatric disorders. Insomnia is defined as repeated difficulty with sleep initiation, maintenance, consolidation or quality that occur despite adequate time and opportunity for sleep and that result in some form of day time impairment .Psychotropic drugs may have positive effect on sleep, some enhances sleep architecture, but some others have negative effects. Psychological stress is a triggering factor for insomnia and has a bidirectional association with poor sleep quality.[1] A cross-sectional study was conducted for over a period of six months in psychiatry OPD of a tertiary care hospital in Kerala, India. A total of 200 patients satisfying the inclusion criteria were analyzed to study the insomnia in psychiatry patients were assessed by interviewing the patients using Bergens Insomnia Scale.[2] The final analysis included 200 patients who met all the inclusion criteria. The greatest number of sleeping pills were prescribed to the patients with severe insomnia and least number of sleeping pills were prescribed to patients with no significant insomnia. Clonazepam, lorazepam, quetiapine, and diazepam were the frequently prescribed drugs for insomnia. The study offers an insight into the assessment of insomnia in psychiatric patients. Analysis of 200 patients using Bergens Insomnia scale revealed clonazepam, lorazepam, quetiapine and diazepam as frequently prescribed for insomnia.

Keywords: Insomnia, Psychotropic drugs, Sleep Quality, Bergens Insomnia Scale.