Been away for a few weeks, first to complete a Jewish National Fund mission in Israel, and then to continue a few half-day training workshops in Israel for mental health professionals working with trauma survivors.
A couple months ago, this Letter to the Editor was published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry in response to a paper on the topic of what causes sleep problems in psychiatric patients. I applauded the authors for their efforts to inform colleagues to look deeper into the causes of sleep disturbances instead of reaching so quickly for prescription pads.
I was further impressed with the way they pointed to sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) as a likely culprit, one that is frequently unrecognized and therefore undiagnosed.
My letter simple emphasized that with all their good intentions, it was our clinical experience the prevalence of SDB is so much higher than imagined, it makes more sense to think about testing everyone who walks into a mental health practice complaining of sleep symptoms.
The two-page letter is free, but you need click on the link and then once at the PubMed site, it’s best to click on the PDF link for easier access and reading.