Treatment of Insomnia for Adolescents With Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

A substantial number of children and adolescents sustain a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) each year. Although research supports that the vast majority of youth will recover quickly and return to normal functioning, some adolescents continue to report problems long after the injury. Disturbed sleep, notably trouble with sleep onset and sleep maintenance, is a frequently reported problem in those with slow recovery from a mTBI. Poor sleep is also associated with cognitive complaints, mood disturbance, and lower quality of life. Despite the identification of sleep disturbance as a problem associated with slow recovery, there are very few treatment options. Cognitive-behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) has shown promise in children and adolescents as an effective treatment for sleep disturbance, although it has yet to be applied to the adolescent mTBI population who also present with sleep problems. The objective of this study is to examine the treatment of sleep disturbance using cognitive-behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) in those adolescents who have a protracted recovery from their mTBI. This represents a novel treatment option for this patient population and is anticipated to improve outcomes and quality of life.

Mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBIs) in youth are a major public health issue. The vast majority of adolescents who sustain a mTBI will recover within a few months. Epidemiological studies of youth with mTBI who present to the emergency department suggest that roughly 80-85% of school-aged children and adolescents will recover symptomatically by 3 months post-mTBI. These recovery rates suggest that only a small proportion of children with mTBI will show a protracted recovery. Unfortunately, these children require considerable health care resources, miss a large amount of academic time, and suffer declines in quality of life. There is a paucity of evidence-based treatment for the constellation of problems displayed by those with protracted recovery from mTBI, with most current practices focusing on amelioration of specific symptoms using pharmacological agents.

Following a mTBI, sleep disruption is a commonly reported symptom. Blinman and colleagues reported symptom characteristics in adolescents who were admitted to the hospital following a mTBI. When rating symptoms during the initial hospitalization, 55% reported having trouble falling asleep and 54% reported sleeping less than usual. When asked again 2-3 weeks follow-up, 38% reported having trouble falling asleep and 22% reported sleeping less than usual. Of the 22 symptoms being rated at the 2-3 week follow-up, sleep issues had some of the highest mean symptom severity ratings. Although sleep problems are often endorsed acutely after the injury, true sleep disturbance likely has a slightly delayed onset compared to physical symptoms (e.g., headaches, dizziness). Eisenberg and colleagues suggested that sleep problems resolved gradually over time, but evidence suggests that they can persist in a sub-sample of children with mTBI, particularly if the sleep difficulties arise early in recovery.

Cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) represents a promising therapeutic option for sleep disruption following mTBI in youth. Although sleep disturbance is a common post-concussive problem, few treatment options are available. CBT-I has been shown to successfully treat insomnia in multiple populations and has been recommended as a first-line treatment for insomnia, because it shows superior long-term symptom reduction in comparison to both benzodiazepine and non-benzodiazepine drugs. Furthermore, meta-analyses support the effectiveness of CBT-I, with medium to large effect sizes for CBT-I on measures of subjective sleep both at the end of treatment and on follow-up. CBT-I is theorized to work similarly in adult and adolescent populations. Evidence suggests that the gains made from CBT-I persist over time and include shorter latency to fall asleep, fewer times of waking after sleep onset, and better sleep efficiency, as well as secondary improvements in child-reported depression and anxiety.

Objective:

To determine if CBT-I (in-person) improves sleep in adolescents with protracted recovery following a mTBI.

Hypotheses:

Primarily, the investigators hypothesize that in-person CBT-I will result in significant improvements in subjectively reported insomnia for adolescents with mTBI, over and above treatment as usual.

Secondarily, the investigators hypothesize that in-person CBT-I will result in significant improvements in subjective sleep quality, dysfunctional beliefs about sleep, and sleep diary measures for adolescents with mTBI, over and above treatment as usual.

Method:

Participants: Participants 12-18 years of age who are slow to recover from a mTBI will be recruited from the ACH Brain Injury Clinic (Dr. Barlow, Lisette Lockyer, Lisa Bodell) and from the ACH Neuropsychology Service (Dr.Brooks).

Procedure: This will be a single-blind parallel-group RCT that will block sex (1:1 ratio). Those in the control group who have insomnia at week 13 can be entered into the treatment at that time. Participants will be randomized and will complete pre-treatment measures at week 1. The questionnaires are expected to take 30 minutes to complete (ISI, PSQI, DBAS, HBI, and PROMIS). Those randomized to the treatment arm (in-person CBT-I) will partake in a 6-week CBT-I program adapted for adolescents, with each session taking 1 hour. A breakdown of what each CBT-I session comprises is found in the study protocol. Sessions will be led by a postdoctoral fellow or graduate student overseen by Drs. Tomfohr-Madsen or Madsen (registered psychologists). Following treatment, participants will complete the same measures again. The same measures will be completed once more at one month post-treatment to measure maintenance of sleep improvement. The control group will participate in all assessment points, and may choose to partake in the CBT-I protocol after the final assessment if sleep problems persist.

This will be a randomized clinical trial - participants randomized to the treatment condition will partake in the CBT-I intervention. There is one treatment arm - in-person CBT-I. Participants randomized to the control condition may elect to partake in the CBT-I intervention following completion of all follow-up measures if their sleep problems persist.

Participants will complete pre-treatment measures at baseline (week 1). The questionnaires are expected to take 30 minutes for adolescents to complete (ISI, PSQI, DBAS-16, HBI, PROMIS depression and anxiety scales), plus 5 minutes daily for the sleep diary to be completed. Parents will provide demographic information (5-10 minutes). Those randomized to the treatment condition will partake in a 6-week CBT-I program (in-person) adapted for adolescents, with each session taking 1 hour. Corroboration of engagement in the treatment will be based on sleep diary entries. Sessions will be led by a postdoctoral fellow or graduate student overseen by Drs. Madsen and Tomfohr-Madsen (registered psychologists). Following the intervention, participants in both conditions will complete the same measures again at week 8 (assessors will be blinded to the study condition). The same measures will be completed one more time at one month post-treatment to measure maintenance of sleep improvement (assessors again blinded to study condition).

Eligibility Criteria:
Inclusion Criteria:

* 12-18 years of age
* diagnosed with a concussion by a nurse practitioner or physician at the ACH Complex Concussion Clinic (i.e., concussion was defined as an traumatic injury to the head, at least one reported symptom \[e.g., dizziness, headache, nausea\] at the time of the injury, and a Glasgow Coma Scale rating of ≥13/15 at 30 minutes after injury, or loss of consciousness \<30 minutes, or post-traumatic amnesia \<24 hours)
* being at least 2 months but no more than 12 months post-injury to ensure symptoms were no longer acute, yet current and persistent
* reporting elevated symptoms of insomnia measured by an Insomnia Severity Index score of ≥12
* ability to attend in-person treatment sessions.

Exclusion Criteria:

* moderate or severe TBI (i.e., Glasgow Coma scale rating of ≤12, loss of consciousness exceeding 30 minutes, and/or post-traumatic amnesia exceeding 24 hours)
* visual, hearing, motor, and/or language deficits that would hinder the completion of questionnaires or engagement in CBT-I.