Prevalence of sleep disorders and severity of insomnia in psychiatric outpatients attending a tertiary level mental health care facility in Punjab, India.

BACKGROUND: Sleep disorders are frequently associated with psychiatric disorders and can be both cause and effect of the same.

AIM: To study the prevalence of sleep disorders and the severity of insomnia in psychiatric outpatients.

METHODS: 500 patients were randomly selected using purposive sampling from patients attending a tertiary level mental health care facility were evaluated for the presence of any sleep disorder along with their sleep quality. In patients having insomnia, severity of the same was determined.

RESULTS: 83.4% of the population had some type of sleep disorder. Symptoms of insomnia were reported by 78.2% of the population and 29.2% had moderate to severe insomnia. 78.4% of the population had poor sleep quality. Significant difference was noted among the different psychiatric groups when insomnia severity index (ISI) was compared. In multinomial logistic regression, chance of severe insomnia is more if the diagnosis is depression, but less if mania or ocd, compared to psychosis.

CONCLUSION: This study was the first in India to assess the prevalence of sleep disorders in psychiatric outpatients. Our study underscores the importance of careful evaluation of sleep problems for proper management of the patients.