title: Where sleep medicine meets psychiatry: a recent understanding of post-traumatic stress disorder and its treatment.
abstract: I believe that the results of these sleep studies show that in chronic PTSD, most patients have a significant sleep disorder that is independent of their PTSD, but which provides the vulnerability in which PTSD develops. The utility of these studies lies in the fact that for the most part these sleep disorders can be treated, and the PTSD can then subsequently respond to appropriate treatment, or be resolved as sleep normalizes. There's a lot more that can be done--I'd like to end on some words from the American poet, Robert Frost, whose lines "I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep; and miles to go before I sleep" seem to herald the current situation in which sleep medicine and psychiatry are making a tentative beginning to explore a new realm of study.
authors.affiliation: Oxford University.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Oxlade
mesh_terms: D015928:Cognitive Behavioral Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D017286:Polysomnography; D011570:Psychiatry / Q000379:methods*; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology*; D012893:Sleep Wake Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*