The effect of interpersonal psychotherapy for depression on insomnia symptoms in a cohort of women with sexual abuse histories

Abstract

Insomnia frequently occurs with trauma exposure and depression, but can ameliorate with improvements in depression. Insomnia was assessed by the insomnia subscale of the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression in 106 women with childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and major depression receiving interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) in an uncontrolled pilot (n = 36) and an immediately subsequent randomized controlled trial (n = 70) comparing IPT to treatment as usual. Depression improved in each study and in both treatment conditions; insomnia had smaller, nonsignificant improvements. Overall, 95 women (90%) endorsed insomnia on the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM‐IV at baseline and, of those, 90% endorsed insomnia following treatment. Despite improvements in depression, insomnia persists for most women with CSA.