Purpose

This workshop is designed to provide participants the core elements of cognitive-behavioral treatment for insomnia. The course starts by grounding participants in the basics of sleep medicine that undergird the practice of CBT-I. It goes on to present systematic, empirically validated treatment methods and essential information about the pathophysiology and etiology of insomnia necessary to inform assessment, diagnosis, treatment, and the handling of treatment resistance.

Insomnia is widely recognized to be the most common sleep problem and is also a leading complaint in primary care settings. The consequences and morbidity associated with chronic insomnia can be substantial across several domains and can include increased health care utilization, impaired quality of life, increased risk of falls and hip fractures, increased risk of medical and behavioral disorders, and ultimately worse outcomes for all co-morbid disorders.

Effective treatment of insomnia not only improves sleep quality and daytime functioning but has also now been shown to have direct beneficial impact on depression, anxiety, PTSD, chronic pain, and other behavioral and medical disorders. In addition, cognitive-behavioral treatments for insomnia have been shown to be of equal or greater effectiveness when compared to sedative hypnotic medication. These findings suggest that CBT-I should be considered a trans-diagnostic therapy that should be in every clinician’s tool box.

Learning Objectives

• Define the basics of sleep nomenclature including sleep period, phase, continuity, and architecture.
• Define and distinguish acute insomnia from Insomnia Disorder and discuss the importance of treating the chronic form as a specifically targeted co-morbidity.
• Cite the evidence for the efficacy of CBT-I for both primary and co-morbid insomnia disorder.
• Explain the Spielman model of insomnia and basics of sleep regulation, and demonstrate how to utilize these concepts in the deployment of CBT-I
• Explain how to obtain useable patient sleep diary data, and how to analyze the data for use in the course of CBT-I treatment
• Apply the techniques of Stimulus Control and Sleep Restriction therapy to the treatment of chronic Insomnia
• Apply the techniques of sleep hygiene education and cognitive therapeutic strategies to the treatment of chronic insomnia
• Apply a decision-making algorithm to case conceptualization.
• Explain the steps necessary to aide in good relapse prevention.

Agenda

Social Hour

IPA will be hosting a social on Friday, October 11 from 5-7 pm at Star Bar (2811 Ingersoll Ave, Des Moines, IA 50312). Your first drink and appetizers will be hosted by IPF and IPA. Please email your RSVP to ipa@iowapsychology.org. by October 9.

Speaker

Donn Posner, PhD
Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine 
Clinical/Research Psychologist, Palo Alto Institute for Research

Dr. Donn Posner works as a clinical/research psychologist at the Palo Alto VA and consults on a number of grants exploring the effects of CBT-I in Gulf War Veterans and Veterans with insomnia and Mild Traumatic Brain Injury. In the previous 5 years, he also served as an Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Stanford University School of Medicine.

Prior to his role at the VA he spent 25 years serving as the Director of Behavioral Sleep Medicine for the Sleep Disorders Center of Lifespan Hospitals and was a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at the Warren Alpert School of Medicine at Brown University. Dr. Posner is a member of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and is one of the first Certified Behavioral Sleep Medicine specialists recognized by that group. He is also a founding member of the Society of Behavioral Sleep Medicine and he has also now achieved the status of Diplomate with the SBSM.