Advances in the management of insomnia.
Insomnia is a prevalent disorder, altering night time sleep, daytime mood and performance. Current treatment strategies, used separately or in combination, include pharmacological, circadian, behavioural and cognitive therapy. An increased diversity of available hypnotics with different potency, pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic profiles and improved side effect profiles provides more flexibility in designing individual treatment strategies. Melatonin, a pineal hormone with acute sleep-promoting and chronobiotic properties, allows additional possibilities in treating insomnia and circadian sleep disorders. Current studies of processes involved in normal sleep regulation and pathophysiology of insomnia should result in the development of new medications based on physiological mechanisms of sleep.
Zhdanova
Irina V
IV
Boston University School of Medicine, Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, 715 Albany Street R-913, Boston MA 02118, USA. zhdanova@bu.edu
D001524:Behavioral Medicine / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends; D019454:Chronotherapy / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends; D015928:Cognitive Behavioral Therapy / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends; D019468:Disease Management; D006801:Humans; D006993:Hypnotics and Sedatives / Q000737:chemistry / Q000145:classification / Q000627:therapeutic use; D008550:Melatonin / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use; D007319:Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*
D006993:Hypnotics and Sedatives; D008550:Melatonin