PREVALENCE OF INSOMNIA IN ELDERLY GENERAL-PRACTICE ATTENDERS AND THE CURRENT TREATMENT MODALITIES

This study aimed to assess the prevalence and treatment modalities of elderly practice attenders. A total of 330 patients aged over 65 years were investigated with a questionnaire in general practice. To assess insomnia, operationalized diagnostic criteria according to DSM-III-R were applied. Twenty-three percent of the elderly patients suffered fr om severe, 17% from moderate and 17% from mild insomnia. More than 80% of the patients reported suffering from insomnia for 1-5 years or lon ger, which indicates a chronic course. Elderly patients showed unreali stic expectations concerning duration of sleep and spend more time in bed than they realistically can expect to sleep. More than half of the elderly patients reported habitual daytime napping. Sleep-disturbed e lderly patients did not differ significantly from good sleepers in the ir habit of taking daytime naps, but even when taking daytime naps, go od sleepers slept significantly longer than the sleep-disturbed patien ts. A significant association was found between insomnia and mental di sorders, i.e., depression and organic brain syndrome according to the diagnosis of the general physician. In about half of the cases the pri mary care physician was not aware that the elderly patient suffered fr om severe insomnia. More than half of the elderly severe insomniacs to ok prescribed hypnotics habitually, mainly benzodiazepines.