Treating Insomnia: A Review of Patient Perceptions Toward Treatment

Abstract

Patient views about their treatment for insomnia often dictate outcome. This review explores the literature relating to the patients’ global perceptions toward treatment for insomnia. A strategic literature search was conducted using five databases (PubMed, CINAHL, Medline, PsycINFO, and Embase). The 57 research articles included for this review were mapped out chronologically across three key stages of treatment-seeking (pretreatment appraisal, actual treatment experiences, and posttreatment evaluation). Patient perceptions played an important role across these three key stages and influenced subsequent health behaviors such as the initiation of help-seeking, treatment uptake, treatment adherence, and treatment adjustment. Patients’ perceptions toward treatment were heavily grounded by their psychosocial contexts. Clinical implications and future directions for including patient-centered metrics in mainstream practice and research are discussed.

Notes

¹ The original ITAS conceptualized by Morin et al. (1992) contains nine items. Other studies have collapsed items relating to sleep initiation and sleep maintenance into one category. In such an instance, the ITAS contains eight items but scoring remains the same (Healey et al., 2011).