Insomnia treatment

Head | General Practice | Insomnia treatment (Disease)


Description

Insomnia is a symptom, not a stand-alone diagnosis or a disease. By definition, insomnia is difficulty initiating or maintaining sleep, or both or the perception of poor quality sleep.

Insomnia may be classified by how long the symptoms are present.

(1) Transient insomnia usually is due to situational changes such as travel, extreme climate changes, and stressful events. It lasts for less than a week or until the stressful event is resolved.

(2) Short-term insomnia usually is due to ongoing stressful lifestyle or events, medication side effects or medical conditions and lasts for one to three weeks.

(3) Chronic insomnia (long-term insomnia) often results from depression, digestive problems, sleep disorders, or substance abuse and continues for more than three weeks.

Transient insomnia may progress to short-term insomnia and without adequate treatment, and short-term insomnia may become chronic insomnia.

Diagnosis and Treatment

In the treatment of insomnia are used numerous medications, including zolpidem, short-acting benzodiazepines or long and zaleplon. It was shown that many of these drugs are relatively safe use in a shorter period of three weeks in an attempt to break the cycle of the patients psycho-physiological insomnia conditioned (person develops an obsession that she would sleep for various reasons).

When a person consults a health care practitioner about insomnia, the practitioner may ask the person to keep a sleep log for several weeks to monitor sleep habits. The treatment options for short-term or chronic insomnia include not only medications, but often sleep habit and behavioral modifications for optimal long-term results. ...