Date of Award

8-13-2024

Document Type

Open Access Thesis

Degree Name

MS in Physician Assistant Studies (PA)

Department

Physician Assistant Studies

First Advisor

Ryane Lester

Abstract

Objective: Primary insomnia is a mental health condition in which individuals struggle with falling asleep, staying asleep or early morning awakenings. As there are many treatments available that claim to help those with primary insomnia, this review looks specifically at therapy, exercise and acupuncture as management strategies.

Methods: This is a review of 15 peer-reviewed, randomized controlled trials completed in 2018 or later with one additional study completed in 2010. Also, there are four non primary insomnia based studies used to support the efficacy of alternative therapies to cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). All the studies used in this review come from 2 educational databases (PubMed, Google Scholar). Keywords used to find these articles include primary insomnia, management, adults, CBT, therapy, exercise and acupuncture.

Discussion: Following a detailed and standardized review of each study, all three management strategies (therapy, exercise and acupuncture) were found to be effective in reducing insomnia symptoms to varying degrees.

Conclusion: Therapy, exercise and acupuncture are all effective forms of treatment in adults with primary insomnia. The most effective include CBT, moderate intensity aerobic exercise and true acupuncture at multiple acupoints with or without added auricular acupoints. This review is unable to claim one form of management is more effective than another as there is no research currently available, within the constraints of this review, that compares them. More research is needed here.

Identifier

SC 11.PAS.2024.Myhre.A

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