Psychiatric comorbidities and prescribing tendencies of sleep medications and related medications in young people with insomnia : A United States commercial claims-based analysis

© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Sleep Research Society. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissionsoup.com..

STUDY OBJECTIVES: To characterize children and youth newly diagnosed with insomnia and to describe their use of sleep and other related prescription medications.

METHODS: Within a commercial claims database (1/1/2016-12/31/2021), we identified children and youth (2-24 years) with a newly recorded insomnia diagnosis (G47.0x;F51.0x) and examined psychiatric diagnoses in the prior 6 months. We evaluated sleep and related prescription medications dispensed in the week after new insomnia diagnoses (i.e., trazodone, other antidepressants, hydroxyzine, alpha-agonists, benzodiazepines, non-benzodiazepine hypnotics 'z-drugs', antipsychotics, others). Analyses were stratified by age and psychiatric comorbidities.

RESULTS: Among 68,698 children and 108,118 older youth (18-24 years) with a new insomnia diagnosis, three-quarters had a diagnosed comorbid psychiatric condition; anxiety disorders, depression, and ADHD were the most common. Among those without comorbid psychiatric diagnoses, 20.2% of children and 37.4% of older youth had a sleep or related medication dispensed in the following week. In children without a comorbid psychiatric diagnosis, alpha-blockers, hydroxyzine, and trazodone were the most common medications; in older youth, trazodone was the most common medication followed by hydroxyzine, z-drugs, and SSRIs. Sleep and related prescription medications were more commonly dispensed in those with psychiatric comorbidities. From 2017 to 2021, there was an increase in hydroxyzine prescriptions following a new insomnia diagnosis and decline in z-drug and benzodiazepine prescriptions.

CONCLUSIONS: Our findings from a nationwide sample of young people with insomnia highlight the high prevalence of psychiatric comorbidities and variety of sleep and related medications they receive. Characterizing prescribing tendencies informs guideline development and future research.

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2024

Erschienen:

2024

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - year:2024

Enthalten in:

Sleep - (2024) vom: 02. März

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Bushnell, Greta [VerfasserIn]
Ivanenko, Anna [VerfasserIn]
Horton, Daniel B [VerfasserIn]
Lunsford-Avery, Jessica R [VerfasserIn]
Posner, Jonathan [VerfasserIn]
Gerhard, Tobias [VerfasserIn]
Suarez, Elizabeth [VerfasserIn]
Olfson, Mark [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

Adolescent
Insomnia
Journal Article
Pediatrics
Pharmacological Treatment
Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders
Young Adult

Anmerkungen:

Date Revised 02.03.2024

published: Print-Electronic

Citation Status Publisher

doi:

10.1093/sleep/zsae057

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM36920428X