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Brief Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia in Patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome: A Pilot Study

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Abstract

Background

Up to 60% of patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) report fatigue and 50% meet criteria for clinical insomnia. Recent studies have demonstrated a relationship between poor sleep and next-day IBS symptoms. However, no study to-date has evaluated behavioral therapy to treat poor sleep in IBS.

Aims

The aim of the current pilot study is to test feasibility of behavioral therapy for insomnia among patients with IBS and poor sleep.

Methods

This randomized controlled pilot study tested the feasibility of administering brief behavioral therapy for insomnia (BBT-I) to patients with IBS who report poor sleep. Participants were randomized to BBT-I or self-monitoring control. Exploratory analyses evaluated group differences after 4 weeks of treatment.

Results

A total of 25 participants were randomized to the study, 13 to BBT-I and 12 to the control group. Three participants dropped out of the treatment group. Satisfaction with treatment was high. At follow-up, there were significant differences between groups in measures of sleep quality and insomnia severity. There were trends toward significance in IBS severity score, with 40% of the BBT-I sample reporting clinically meaningful drop in symptoms compared to 17% of the control group. Similar trends were observed with belly pain and global improvement scores.

Conclusions

This pilot study demonstrates feasibility/acceptability of a brief behavioral therapy for patients with IBS and poor sleep. Additionally, this study provides preliminary evidence to suggest that treatment of sleep difficulties in patients with IBS may improve IBS symptom outcomes. Future, larger randomized controlled studies are needed.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge Dr. Suzanne Bertisch and Dr. Robert Thomas for sharing their expertise in sleep medicine and for their contributions to this project.

Funding

This project was funded in part by T32DK007760 (SB).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA

    Sarah Ballou, Jesse Katon, Vikram Rangan, Vivian Cheng, Judy Nee, Johanna Iturrino & Anthony Lembo

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  1. Sarah Ballou
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  2. Jesse Katon
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  3. Vikram Rangan
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Correspondence to Sarah Ballou.

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Ballou, S., Katon, J., Rangan, V. et al. Brief Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia in Patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome: A Pilot Study. Dig Dis Sci 65, 3260–3270 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10620-020-06182-w

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