Date of Award

2025

Document Type

Capstone

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Committee Chair

Trey Boyd

Abstract

Introduction: Insomnia is a widespread sleep disorder with significant impacts on public health, economics, and vulnerable populations including the elderly and those with chronic health conditions. This review examines current literature comparing pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic treatments for insomnia.

Methods: A comprehensive literature search was conducted via PubMed using the keywords “insomnia,” “cognitive behavioral therapy,” and “pharmacotherapeutics” which was refined using MeSH terms, Boolean operators, and specific parameters (English, free full-text, published between 2019 and 2024). Six articles were selected for an in-depth review of pharmacotherapeutic and psychotherapeutic treatments for insomnia.

Results: The selected articles from the PubMed search were reviewed and analyzed to evaluate their methodologies, study designs, and findings on the efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy versus pharmacotherapy for insomnia. 1 systematic review/meta-analysis, 1 RCT, 2 cohort studies, and 1 general review. Key findings include the efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy as the preferred first-line treatment, particularly in reducing insomnia symptoms and improving sleep quality, with the digital form showing comparable effectiveness to traditional face-to-face cognitive behavioral therapy.

Discussion: The findings presented in this review emphasize the importance of prioritizing non-pharmacological approaches in the management of insomnia, while future research should focus on optimization of the digital form of cognitive behavioral therapy and the refinement of pharmacological strategies should they be a necessary supplement.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License

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