title: The role of anxiety sensitivity in sleep disturbance in panic disorder.
abstract: Previous research has demonstrated that individuals with panic disorder (PD) report significant sleep disturbances, although the mechanism of this disturbance is not clear. Patients with PD tend to report abnormally high levels of anxiety sensitivity (AS). Because higher AS involves increases in attention and fearfulness about anxiety and associated physical sensations, which in turn may cause excessive psychological and physiologic arousal, we hypothesized that amongst individuals with PD, higher AS would be associated with sleep disruption, particularly in the form of increased sleep latency. As expected, PD was associated with poorer sleep as measured by the Global Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) compared to controls and AS was significantly associated with longer sleep latency. Our data suggest that sleep disturbance, and in particular sleep latency, in PD may be partly due to high levels of AS, which can be targeted with cognitive-behavioral therapeutic strategies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114-2790, USA. ehoge@partners.org
authors.forename: E A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Hoge
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Marques
authors.forename: R S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Wechsler
authors.forename: A K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Lasky
authors.forename: H R
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Delong
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Jacoby
authors.forename: J J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Worthington
authors.forename: M H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Pollack
authors.forename: N M
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: Simon
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016584:Panic Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012890:Sleep; D012893:Sleep Wake Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology