Psychosocial aspects of insomnia: Results of a study in general practice

The relationship between insomnia and psychosocial factors is focused only in few epidemiological studies. Furthermore, most of them do not control for the mutual interdependencies of variables like age, sex, psychosocial distress and somatic or psychiatric disorders in their relation to insomnia. From a sample of general practice attendants, 516 patients with different grades of insomnia diagnosed according to DSM criteria were selected. Logistic regression analysis revealed seven psychosocial factors with independent predictive value for the occurrence of insomnia: increased age, conflicts with relatives, professional overload, housekeeping overload, illness of relatives, social and psychiatric status. Based on such a risk profile, in more than 2/3 of the cases the presence of insomnia can be predicted correctly. Consequences for diagnostic training and multimodal treatment programs are suggested.