Clinical assessment and treatment of insomnia

Insomnia is characterized by problems initiating and maintaining sleep-prob lems that often go unrecognized by psychotherapists as well as physicians. This article addresses central questions related to the diagnosis, assessme nt, and treatment of this problem. Differential diagnosis is focused upon a s well as the comorbidity with psychiatric and organic disorders. The Asses sment of Insomnia section covers different subjective measures of sleep: sl eep diaries, sleep questionnaires, and sleep interview. Additionally, centr al objective sleep measures are included. In the Treatment of Insomnia sect ion, the 6 most common behavioral interventions are presented together with the most current pharmacological approaches.