Insomnia
Generally, people are familiar with an acute anxiety
situation which will disturb sleep, such as concern over a sick child, an
important business deal, the physician’s very sick patient. The anxiety here is
a more rational anxiety however, than we see in people suffering from chronic
insomnia. In the case of chronic insomnia, the patient may insist that he
doesn’t worry or that he has no problems. But it is the job of the physician to
reveal to the patient the problem which is causing him anxiety.
Insomnia
Under Diagnosed And Under Treated
Nearly 20 to 30 percent of adults worldwide suffer
from insomnia, less than 50 percent of them will be diagnosed with the
condition. A major reason for poor recognition of insomnia is that patients
often do not speak to the doctor about their problem.
One survey says that patients are hesitant to
discuss insomnia with their physicians because they are afraid their problem
would be seen as trivial, or conversely, they are afraid they would be told
they had a serious illness.
Physicians also tend to trivialize insomnia. In
this case, the problem is that physicians are often unaware that the onset of
insomnia may signal serious illnesses.
"Poor sleepers are more than twice as likely
as good sleepers to have ischemic heart disease in the six years after first
experiencing sleeping difficulties, and they are also about three times as
likely as good sleepers to develop frequent headaches."
Physicians often ascribe insomnia to "the
stress of modern life" and tend to be unaware that insomnia is an
established risk factor for psychiatric illness. "The risk of depression
is four times greater in insomniacs than in those not suffering from sleeping
difficulties". In addition, 25 to 40 percent of insomniacs have
significant anxiety. The abuse of alcohol and other substances is more
prevalent in insomniacs.
So, dealing with the problem of insomnia, it requires
due consideration to proper treatment as well as a proper diagnosis.
Luckily there are about 30 known sleep labs in our
country. They can conduct a sleep study (polysomnography), an overnight test
that measures how the body’s activity changes during sleep.
The practical test, known as the Global Sleep
Assessment Questionnaire (GSAQ), which was developed at several of the nations
leading accredited sleep centres, might be helpful to encourage more aggressive
screening and help identify millions of people who suffer from untreated sleep
problems.
Insomnia In Psychosomatic
Diagnosis :
One
must never neglect to inquire regarding sleep because insomnia or disturbances
in the sleep pattern may sometimes be one of the few clues in regard to a
psychosomatic disorder. The taking of sedatives has been widely commented upon
in medical and lay publications and it does seem that the barbiturates and
tranquilizers are almost as much abused as laxatives in the lives of patients.
Just as people addicted to the laxative and enema habit are apt to have illness
of psychosomatic origin, so people who regularly take sedatives may be placed
in the same category. Poor sleep is invariably an indication of emotional
disturbance just as nail-biting is an invariable indication of anxiety of
considerable degree within the personality.
