Case Report: Why Sleep and Dream Related Psychological Treatments, Such as Sleepcoaching (According to Holzinger&Klösch) and CBT-I Should Be Implemented in Treatment Concepts in the Public Health System—Description of the Nightmare Treatment Process in the Context of PTSD

In this case report, we explain the story of a woman diagnosed with severe PTSD, suffering from recurrent nightmares involving a traumatizing event. She participated in 6 week lucid dreaming training to help her reduce her nightmare frequency. Our descriptions include her dream reports as well as the results of the psychological assessment conducted. In only 6 weeks, she was able to begin to change her dream plots and to improve several of the psychological measures. In this case, we stated that paying more attention to sleep and, especially nightmares, not only in patients with PTSD, should be standard in treatment processes for psychiatric disorders. We, therefore, underpin our case with literature that explains the benefits of treatments, specifically for sleep problems that do not involve medication.

Nightmares in Patients with Major Depressive Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, and Psychotic Disorders: A Systematic Review

Chronic nightmares are very common in psychiatric disorders, affecting up to 70% of patients with personality or post-traumatic stress disorders. In other psychiatric disorders, the relationships with nightmares are poorly known. This review aimed to clarify the relationship between nightmares and both mood and psychotic disorders. We performed a systematic literature search using the PubMed, Cochrane Library and PsycINFO databases until December 2019, to identify studies of patients suffering from either a mood disorder or a psychotic disorder associated with nightmares. From the 1145 articles screened, 24 were retained, including 9 studies with patients with mood disorders, 11 studies with patients with psychotic disorders and 4 studies with either psychotic or mood disorders. Nightmares were more frequent in individuals with mood or psychotic disorders than in healthy controls (more than two-fold). Patients with frequent nightmares had higher suicidality scores and had more frequently a history of suicide attempt. The distress associated with nightmares, rather than the frequency of nightmares, was associated with the severity of the psychiatric disorder. Further studies assessing whether nightmare treatment not only improves patient–sleep perception but also improves underlying psychiatric diseases are needed. In conclusion, nightmares are overrepresented in mood and psychotic disorders, with the frequency associated with suicidal behaviors and the distress associated with the psychiatric disorder severity. These findings emphasize major clinical and therapeutic implications.

Interest in telephone nightmare counselling in patients with sleep-related breathing disorders

Background and objective Nightmares are typically underdiagnosed and undertreated, even though frequent nightmares are quite common in patients with sleep-related breathing disorders. Based on a previous study, we investigated whether patients would respond if they were specifically asked whether they would be interested in telephone counselling about nightmares and nightmare treatment. Materials and methods The present study included 537 patients with sleep-related breathing disorders who completed a nightmare questionnaire and—if interested—provided their contact data for a telephone counselling session. Results Of the total patients, 5.40% were interested in the telephone counselling. Most of these patients had never sought help for their nightmare condition before. This percentage is much lower than in a previous study, possibly due to the higher time expenditure related to the new consent procedure. Conclusion The findings indicate that patients with nightmare problems can be reached with this approach even though they have never sought professional help before. In order to minimize the threshold, it would be desirable to have clinical in-house nightmare counselling, which would not require a detailed study information brochure and informed consent.

1063 Depression Moderates the Association Between Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Nightmare Severity in Nurses

Introduction Nurses report a higher prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) than the general population, and approximately 18% of nurses report having depression. Nightmares are a common symptom of PTSD, and both nightmares and PTSD are correlated with depression. Nightmares may represent a possible clinical target for improving outcomes in both disorders. This study assessed associations between PTSD and depressive symptoms with nightmare severity, and whether depressive symptoms moderated associations between PTSD and nightmare severity. Methods Participants were 461 nurses (91% female; 77% white, mean age = 38.39 years) recruited from two hospitals for a parent study. Participants completed the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist (PCL-5), and 14 days of sleep diaries to assess daily nightmare frequency and severity (on a scale of 0 = not at all severe to 3 = very severe). Results 22.1% of participants reported at least one nightmare across the 14 days, with a mean daily nightmare frequency of 1.17 (SD = 2.15) and a mean severity of 0.11 (SD = 0.18). PCL-5 and PHQ-9 scores were significantly correlated with nightmare severity (r = 0.27; r = 0.24, respectively) and each other (r = 0.69). PHQ-9 scores moderated the association between PCL-5 scores and nightmare severity (β = -.01, SE = <0.01, p = 0.015). For individuals 1 SD below the PHQ-9 mean, higher PCL-5 scores were associated with higher nightmare severity. For individuals 1 SD above the PHQ-9 mean, higher PCL-5 scores were associated with higher nightmare severity, but to a lesser degree. Conclusion Both depressive and PTSD symptoms were associated with more severe nightmares. Surprisingly, the association between PTSD symptoms and nightmare severity was stronger for those with lower depressive symptoms. Results suggest depression, PTSD, and nightmares may represent a partially overlapping symptom cluster. Research should investigate how nightmare treatment may reduce PTSD and depressive symptoms. Support NIAID R01AI128359-01