Cancer Treatment Today

Insomnia of cancer patients can be a manifestation of chemotherapy, antiemetics or steroid drugs,  inadequately treated pain or anxiety and stress, and a workup for insomnia is reasonable to require.  Cognitive-behavioral therapy appears to be effective for the treatment of insomnia in the general population and also has been upgraded to “likely to be effective” in the Oncology Nursing Society Putting Evidence Into Practice weight of evidence category. It would be expected that many strategies used for non-cancer patients will also be useful for cancer patients. The most frequently used strategies are stimulus control, sleep restriction, relaxation therapies, paradoxical intention, sleep hygiene, and cognitive restructuring. Sleep medications can also be a useful adjunct.

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