Acute Psychological Sleep Stabilisation for Patients Hospitalised With Depression

Disturbed sleep occurs in almost all patients in psychiatric inpatient care, and although it is well known that comorbid sleep disorders in depression often persist after treatment of depression and also increase the risk of new depressive episodes, the availability of effective, evidence-based treatments for sleep disorders in hospitalised patients is very limited. The overall goal of the current project is to translate, adapt and evaluate an acute psychological sleep treatment based on cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) for patients hospitalized with depression and comorbid sleep problems in the specialized psychiatric inpatient care in the Stockholm Region. The main hypothesis for the study is that acute psychological sleep stabilization (APS) reduces self-reported sleep complains compared to care as usual reinforced with sleep hygiene advice, and secondary hypotheses are that APS also leads to reduced depressive symptoms and earlier discharge. The project includes a pilot study, which will be followed by a randomized, controlled trial of APS compared to care as usual with structured sleep hygiene (minimal active control) and treatment effect is evaluated every three days during the hospital stay and 1,2,4 and 12 weeks after randomization. APS will be performed by existing staff in the department with the support of a psychologist.