CBT improves blood sugar in diabetes patients with sleep problems: Study
USA: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) has a positive impact on blood sugar control in people with type 2 diabetes (T2D) and insomnia symptoms, suggests a recent study in the journal BMC Endocrine Disorders. It also significantly improved fatigue and diabetes self-care behavior (DSCB).
Previous studies have shown an association between insomnia symptoms or sleep disturbances and inefficient glucose metabolism in type 2 diabetes patients. Patients with insomnia symptoms are at higher risk of poor blood sugar control and suboptimal DSCB. Given the conditions, there arises a need for investigating the impact of a safe and effective intervention for people with insomnia symptoms and T2D on health outcomes of diabetes. Therefore, Mohammed M. Alshehri, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas, USA, and colleagues conducted this exploratory study to examine the effects of CBT-I on glycemic control, DSCB, and fatigue.
The study included 28 participants with T2D and insomnia symptoms. The recruitment duration was from October 2018 to May 2019. They were randomly assigned to CBT-I (n = 14) or Health Education (HE; n = 14) after passing eligibility criteria at a medical research center. The CBT-I and HE groups received 6 weekly one-hour sessions.
A total of 13 participants completed the interventions in each group and were included in the final analysis.
Key findings of the study include:
- No adverse events, because of being a part of this RCT, were reported.
- CBT-I participants showed significantly greater improvement in glycemic control, DSCB, and fatigue.
- There was a significant association between the number of days in the CBT-I intervention with the blood glucose level before bedtime and after awakening in the morning.
"Future research is needed to investigate the long-term effects of CBT-I on laboratory tests of blood sugar control and to understand the underlying mechanisms of any improvements," concluded the authors.
The study, "The effects of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia in people with type 2 diabetes mellitus, pilot RCT part II: diabetes health outcomes," is published in the journal BMC Endocrine Disorders.
DOI: https://bmcendocrdisord.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12902-020-00612-6
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