Screening for Comorbidity of Sleep Disorders in Career Firefighters

BACKGROUND

The purpose of this study was to assess the prevalence and sequelae of insomnia, obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), and comorbid OSA and insomnia (COMISA).

METHOD

In the morning, after a shift end, Midwest career firefighters ( N = 89) in a midsized city completed an electronic battery of questionnaire to screen for OSA, daytime sleepiness, insomnia, presleep arousal, nightmares, mental and physical health symptoms, and a one-night sleep diary.

RESULTS

Prevalence of firefighters exceeding screening thresholds: OSA: 54%; insomnia: 30%; COMISA: 17%; four or more nightmares per month: 15%. Firefighters who met criteria for COMISA had shorter total sleep time, less restful and worse sleep quality, higher depression and anxiety symptoms, and presleep arousal symptoms than firefighters without self-reported sleep problems.

CONCLUSIONS

Many firefighters are at elevated risk of individual behavioral sleep disorders, COMISA, and daytime dysfunction.

Relationship of insomnia to sexual function and sexual satisfaction: Findings from the sleep and sex survey II

OBJECTIVE

Research suggests that healthy sleep is a key component of sexual function. When evaluating sexual function, however, poor sleep is often overlooked as a contributing factor. This cross-sectional survey expands prior work by exploring relationships among insomnia severity, sexual satisfaction, and sexual function with an updated battery of measures for the Sleep and Sex Survey.

METHOD

The sample (N = 1266) consisted of 618 men, 648 women recruited via Prolific, an online survey platform. The Sleep and Sex Survey II included measures addressing insomnia, fear of sleep, nightmares, sexual function, sexual satisfaction, sexual activity, depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress, and alcohol use.

RESULTS

Recent sexual activity was correlated with better sleep, lower anxiety, and lower scores on a posttraumatic stress disorder screener. Insomnia severity was negatively correlated with sexual satisfaction (r = 0.22, p < .001) and the presence of insomnia was associated with higher rates of sexual dysfunction in women (53.8% vs. 31.8%; p < .001) and men (22.7% vs. 12.5%; p = .036). In regression analyses, after accounting for depression and anxiety, insomnia had a statistically significant association with sexual function for women (β = 0.12; p < .01) but not men (β = 0.11; p = .60).

CONCLUSION

Findings support a relationship of insomnia to sexual function and satisfaction with some gender differences. Future work may be enhanced by assessing these relationships in a gender diverse population including objective sleep measures and addressing contributing mechanisms. Clinically, findings support the assessment of sleep when evaluating patients for sexual dysfunction.

A Metascientific Review of the Evidential Value of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Depression

In the past three-and-a-half decades, nearly 500 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have examined Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for a range of health problems, including depression. However, emerging concerns regarding the replicability of scientific findings across psychology and mental health treatment outcome research highlight a need to re-examine the strength of evidence for treatment efficacy. Therefore, we conducted a metascientific review of the evidential value of ACT in treating depression. Whereas reporting accuracy was generally high across all trials, we found important differences in evidential value metrics corresponding to the types of control conditions used. RCTs of ACT compared to weaker controls (e.g., no treatment, waitlist) were well-powered, with sample sizes appropriate for detecting plausible effect sizes. They typically yielded stronger Bayesian evidence for (and larger posterior estimates of) ACT efficacy, though there was some evidence of significance inflation among these effects. RCTs of ACT against stronger controls (e.g., other psychotherapies), meanwhile, were poorly powered, designed to detect implausibly large effect sizes, and yielded ambiguous-if not contradicting-Bayesian evidence and estimates of efficacy. Although our review supports a view of ACT as efficacious for treating depression compared to weaker controls, future RCTs must provide more transparent reporting with larger groups of participants to properly assess the difference between ACT and competitor treatments such as behavioral activation and other forms of cognitive behavioral therapy. Clinicians and health organizations should reassess the use of ACT for depression if costs and resources are higher than for other efficacious treatments. Clinical trials contributing effects to our synthesis can be found at https://osf.io/qky35.

0671 Nightmare type and its association with suicide attempts among veterans

Introduction

Research has begun to distinguish between idiopathic (no known origin), trauma-related (recurring after a trauma), and complex nightmares (trauma-related nightmares that recur comorbidly with sleep disordered breathing). Nightmare type may impact symptom severity as well as treatment outcomes among various patient groups. Thus, we sought to examine the individual effects of nightmare type on suicide re-attempts and, secondarily, on treatment utilization.

Methods

This is a secondary analysis of electronic medical record data. Data were extracted for all Veterans with a documented suicide attempt (using ICD-10 codes) during FY13-14. A 1:1 case control was then created using age, sex, and prior year behavioral health treatment utilization. The present sample is comprised of all Veterans from that parent dataset who carry an ICD-10 diagnosis of nightmare disorder (n = 3207). Groups were defined as follows: 1) Idiopathic (n = 589; nightmare disorder only); 2) Trauma (n = 3207; nightmare disorder plus ICD-10 diagnosis of PTSD); 3) Complex (n = 576; nightmare disorder + PTSD + ICD-10 diagnosis of a sleep-related breathing disorder).

Results

Multiple logistic regression revealed that only trauma-related nightmares were positively associated with suicide re-attempts (B = 0.16, SE = 0.06, p &lt; 0.01), with an estimated odds ratio of 1.27 (95% CI of 1.02-1.57). Regarding treatment utilization, regression analyses revealed that both complex nightmares (B = 0.36, p &lt; 0.05) and trauma-related nightmares (B = 0.31, p &lt; 0.05) were significantly associated with mental healthcare utilization (total days).

Conclusion

Our results revealed that both complex and trauma-related nightmares are associated with mental health treatment utilization. Only trauma-related nightmares were significantly associated with suicide re-attempts. Trauma-related nightmares may be distressing because of their trauma-related content, therefore making them more likely to predict reattempts. Overall, results suggest that nightmares are positively associated with suicide re-attempts and increased treatment utilization.

Support (If Any)

This work was supported by the VA Center of Excellence for Suicide Prevention in teh Finger Lakes Healthcare System.

0801 Sleep, Nightmares, and the Maintenance of Posttrauma Symptoms

Introduction

Most individuals will experience at least one traumatic event in their lifetime. Although most individuals who experience a trauma will exhibit some posttrauma symptoms, only a small subset will experience long-lasting symptoms. In fact, most research suggests that posttrauma symptoms will gradually reduce over time. However, some individuals can exhibit posttrauma symptoms for an extended period of time. Although research has demonstrated that poor overall sleep quality may explain why some people have trouble gradually recovering from posttrauma symptoms, research has yet to examine specific aspects of sleep that can impair the gradual remission of posttrauma symptoms. This study examined how individual facets of sleep quality (such as nightmares and sleep duration) impact posttrauma symptoms over time.

Methods

944 college students completed an online survey battery that included measures of traumatic experiences, time since trauma (TST), posttrauma symptoms, sleep quality, and the presence of nightmares. Regression analyses were used to examine the interaction of sleep quality sub-facets and time since trauma on posttrauma nightmares (PNMs).

Results

Out of 944 participants, 637 (67%) reported at least one trauma. Of those students, time since trauma (TST) and all other sleep variables significantly predicted posttrauma symptoms (p &lt; 0.05). However, the only significant interaction was nightmares and TST (p &lt; 0.01) where individuals who experienced PNMs had significantly (p &lt; 0.01) higher posttrauma symptom intercept (48.19) than individuals who did not experience PNMs (31.19). Furthermore, individuals who experienced PNMs demonstrated statistically significant flatter slopes than those without nightmares (p &lt; 0.01).

Conclusion

The results reveal that time since trauma predicts a decrease in posttrauma symptoms, whereas nightmares impede this symptom reduction. Interestingly, the interaction finding suggests that nightmares play a critical role in initial symptom expression and recovery. These results demonstrate the importance of identifying and treating nightmares immediately following a trauma.

Support

“none”

Combat PTSD and Implicit Behavioral Tendencies for Positive Affective Stimuli: A Brief Report

BACKGROUND

Prior cognitive research in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has focused on automatic responses to negative affective stimuli, including attentional facilitation or disengagement and avoidance action tendencies. More recent research suggests PTSD may also relate to differences in reward processing, which has lead to theories of PTSD relating to approach-avoidance imbalances. The current pilot study assessed how combat-PTSD symptoms relate to automatic behavioral tendencies to both positive and negative affective stimuli.

METHOD

Twenty male combat veterans completed the approach-avoidance task (AAT), Clinician Administered PTSD Scale, Beck Depression Inventory-II, and State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory-II. During the AAT, subjects pulled (approach) or pushed (avoid) a joystick in response to neutral, happy, disgust, and angry faces based on border color. Bias scores were calculated for each emotion type (avoid-approach response latency differences). Main and interaction effects for psychological symptom severity and emotion type on bias score were assessed using linear mixed models.

RESULTS

There was a significant interaction between PTSD symptoms and emotion type, driven primarily by worse symptoms relating to a greater bias to avoid happy faces. Post hoc tests revealed that veterans with worse PTSD symptoms were slower to approach as well as quicker to avoid happy faces. Neither depressive nor anger symptoms related to avoid or approach tendencies of emotional stimuli.

CONCLUSION

Posttraumatic stress disorder severity was associated with a bias for avoiding positive affective stimuli. These results provide further evidence that PTSD may relate to aberrant processing of positively valenced, or rewarding stimuli. Implicit responses to rewarding stimuli could be an important factor in PTSD pathology and treatment. Specifically, these findings have implications for recent endeavors in using computer-based interventions to influence automatic approach-avoidance tendencies.