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Aging News & Information
Almost Half of Adults Seeking Sleep with Alternative
Therapy Say It Works
Studies say a majority of senior citizens have
sleep problems
September 18, 2006 - More than 1.6 million U.S.
adults are estimated to use complementary and alternative therapies to
treat insomnia or trouble sleeping, and almost half say it helps them
sleep but a clear majority says it is beneficial to their health and
well-being.
Approximately 10 to 34 percent of Americans
regularly experience difficulty sleeping, also known as insomnia,
according to background information in the article. For senior citizens,
however, the situation is much worse.
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Aging News & Information |
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In the 2003 Sleep in America poll, the National Sleep
Foundation found about two-thirds of older adults reported experiencing
one or more symptoms of a sleep problem at least a few nights a week. A
study from St. Louis University released in July found more than 50
percent of older adults have difficulty sleeping.
Treatment options include prescription and
non-prescription medications, antidepressants and cognitive behavioral
therapy.
Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM)
therapies, defined as those practices that are not scientifically proven
and are not currently considered part of conventional medicine, also are
used to treat insomnia. Such therapies include herbal medicines and
relaxation techniques.
Nancy J. Pearson, Ph.D., and colleagues at the
National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, National
Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md., analyzed data from a national
survey of 31,044 adults conducted in 2002. Respondents answered one
question about whether they had difficulty sleeping in the past 12
months and completed a 10-minute supplemental survey on the use of 27
types of CAM therapies.
The interview also included questions about five
other health conditions: depression and anxiety, congestive heart
failure, diabetes, hypertension (high blood pressure) and obesity. Four
items assessed behavior and motivation for using CAM therapies.
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Health Seniors Sleep
Best |
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A National
Sleep Foundation found that the better the health of older
adults, the more likely they are to sleep well. Conversely, the
greater the number of diagnosed medical conditions, the more
likely they are to report sleep problems.
Additionally,
among older adults, more positive moods and outlooks as well as
having more active and "engaged" lifestyles (having someone to
speak with about a problem, exercise, volunteer activity, etc.)
are associated with sleeping 79 hours and fewer sleep
complaints. |
Of the adults interviewed, 17.4 percent reported
that they had insomnia or trouble sleeping in the past year. Difficulty
sleeping was more common in women than men, most prevalent between ages
45 and 64, and was associated with obesity, hypertension, congestive
heart failure and anxiety or depression, but not diabetes.
Of those with insomnia or trouble sleeping, 4.5
percent reported that they had used CAM to treat the condition, which is
equal to about 1.62 million adults in the general population.
Survey respondents who were younger and who had a
higher level of education were more likely to use CAM to help them
sleep; use of CAM was not related to having any of the five medical
conditions studied.
Among those who use CAM therapies, 60.7 percent
told their conventional physician.
● Sixty-five percent used biological methods,
which include herbal medicines, diet interventions and vitamin therapy.
● Mind-body therapies such as meditation were
used by 39 percent.
● Fifty-six percent reported that the therapy was
very important to their health and well-being.
● Forty-nine percent of those who used herbal
medicine and 48 percent of those who used relaxation therapy reported
that CAM helped alleviate their condition.
Although the question asking whether the CAM
therapy helped provides useful information on the publics perception of
effectiveness of CAM therapies for insomnia or trouble sleeping, it does
not directly address the efficacy of the CAM therapy, the authors
write.
A positive answer to this question could be due to
a placebo effect, the natural history of the condition or other
unidentified influences rather than efficacy of the CAM treatment.
The survey provides valuable information about the
use of CAM that can guide future studies of whether these therapies are
effective, they conclude.
These results are from a national survey published
in the September 18 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, a theme
issue on sleep.
Editor's Note: This work was supported by
the Division of Extramural Research and Training, National Center for
Complementary and Alternative Medicine, National Institutes of Health,
Department of Health and Human Services.
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