Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder features and response to behavioral therapy for insomnia among patients with hypnotic-dependent insomnia.

Objective

To compare therapeutic response to behavioral therapy for insomnia (BT-I) among hypnotic-dependent insomnia (HDI) patients with and without Cluster C personality disorders.

Participants

Twenty-three adults with HDI (17 females), aged between 33 and 68 (M = 53; SD = 9.9) were included in the study.

Methods

Participants completed a personality disorder assessment (baseline), as well as sleep diaries, polysomnography (PSG), and an insomnia severity assessment (baseline, posttreatment, and one-year follow-up). Treatment consisted of eight weeks of individual BT-I and gradual hypnotic medication withdrawal. Multilevel mixed-effects linear regression models examined the interaction between study visit and Cluster C personality disorders status on treatment response to BT-I.

Results

Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) was the most prevalent of the Cluster C personality disorders with 38% (n = 8) of participants meeting criteria. There were no significant treatment differences by OCPD status across time as measured by sleep diaries and insomnia severity status. However, there were significant treatment differences by OCPD status by one-year follow-up on PSG outcomes, indicating that patients with OCPD status had shorter and more disrupted sleep than patients without OCPD status.

Conclusions

Based on self-reported sleep measures, patients with insomnia and features of OCPD responded equivalently to BT-I at one-year follow-up compared to patients without features of OCPD. However, polysomnography outcomes indicated objective sleep deteriorated in these patients, which may suggest greater vulnerability to relapse.