Cited by 176Sleep and related disordersMusculoskeletal pain and rehabilitationObstructive Sleep Apnea Research

Nonpharmacological Treatments of Insomnia for Long-Term Painful Conditions: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Patient-Reported Outcomes in Randomized Controlled Trials

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Tang, Nicole K.Y., Lereya, S. Tanya, Boulton, Hayley, Miller, Michelle A., Wolke, Dieter, Cappuccio, Francesco P.·2015·Sleep

Abstract

STUDY OBJECTIVES: Insomnia is a debilitating comorbidity of chronic pain. This study evaluated the effect of nonpharmacological sleep treatments on patient-reported sleep quality, pain, and well-being in people with long-term cancer and non-cancer (e.g., back pain, arthritis, fibromyalgia) pain conditions. DESIGN: We systematically searched Cochrane CENTRAL, MEDLINE, Embase, and PsychINFO for relevant studies. Search period was set to inception of these databases to March 2014. Studies were included if they were: original randomized controlled trials (RCTs); testing a nonpharmacological intervention; that targets sleep; in adults; with painful health conditions; that has a control group; includes a measure of sleep quality; and at least one other health and well-being outcome. MEASUREMENT AND FINDINGS: Means and standard deviations of sleep quality, pain, fatigue, depression, anxiety, physical and psychological functioning were extracted for the sleep treatment and control groups at baseline, posttreatment and final follow-up. Methodological details concerning the treatment, participants, and study design were abstracted to guide heterogeneity and subgroup analyses. Eleven RCTs involving 1,066 participants (mean age 45-61 years) met the criteria for the meta-analysis. There was no systematic evidence of publication bias. Nonpharmacological sleep treatments in chronic pain patients were associated with a large improvement in sleep quality (standardized mean difference = 0.78, 95% Confidence Interval [0.42, 1.13]; P < 0.001), small reduction in pain (0.18 [0, 0.36] P < 0.05), and moderate improvement in fatigue (0.38 [0.08, 0.69]; P < 0.01) at posttreatment. The effects on sleep quality and fatigue were maintained at follow-up (up to 1 year) when a moderate reduction in depression (0.31, [0.09, 0.53]; P < 0.01) was also observed. Both cancer and non-cancer pain patients benefited from nonpharmacological sleep treatments. Face-to-face treatments achieved better outcomes than those delivered over the phone/internet. CONCLUSIONS: Although the body of evidence was small, nonpharmacological sleep interventions may represent a fruitful avenue for optimizing treatment outcomes in patients with chronic pain. REGISTRATION: PROSPERO registration: CRD42013004131.

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  • The most promising results for treating sleeping problems comorbid with chronic pain point to cognitive behavioural therapy specific for insomnia.

    “The most promising results for treating sleeping problems comorbid with chronic pain points to cognitive behavioural therapy specific for insomnia [38, 39].”

    From Is sleep disturbance in patients with chronic pain affected by physical exercise or ACT-based stress management? - A randomized controlled study (2018) · cites this paper as [38]

    The Results say most treatment packages incorporated a component of CBT-I, and the Discussion reports that the sleep treatments improved sleep quality in patients with chronic pain. The paper evaluates nonpharmacological interventions as a group, however; it does not establish that CBT-I specifically is the most promising treatment relative to alternatives. The indexed passages provide no page numbers. (LLM, conf=0.82)

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Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. [47]Higgins J, Green S, editors. Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions Version 5.1.0 [updated March 2011] The Cochrane Collaboration. 2011 [Google Scholar]

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Authors
Tang, N. K. Y., Lereya, S. T., Boulton, H., Miller, M. A., Wolke, D., & Cappuccio, F. P.
Affiliations
  • University of Warwick (GB)
  • Department of Psychology, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK
Corresponding author
Tang, Nicole K.Y.
Venue
Sleep
Published
2015-11-01
Volume
38
Issue
11
Pages
1751-1764
ISSN
  • 0161-8105 (ISSN-L)
  • 1550-9109
OpenAlex
W1784234967
Cited by
176
References
96
Citations by year
2026: 11 · 2025: 19 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 19 · 2021: 27 · 2020: 14 · 2019: 22 · 2018: 16 · 2017: 15 · 2016: 5
FWCI
1.55
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • SLEEP (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
National Institutes of Health
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Sleep and related disorders
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Pharmacology › Musculoskeletal pain and rehabilitation
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Obstructive Sleep Apnea Research
Keywords
insomnia, chronic pain, sleep quality, cancer pain, back pain, fibromyalgia, arthritis, fatigue, depression, anxiety, psychological functioning, telephone-delivered intervention, online intervention, face-to-face intervention, patient-reported outcomes, well-being, analgesia, follow-up outcomes, publication bias, subgroup analysis
MeSH terms
Anxiety, Depression, Fatigue, Humans, Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders, Neoplasms, Sleep, Time Factors, Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic, Treatment Outcome, Self Report, Chronic Pain

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