Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T14:25:31.979Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Management of Short-Term Insomnia for Inpatients in an Adult Acute Admissions Ward: Audit of Compliance With Local and National Guidelines

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 July 2023

Marie Long  and
Rose Widdowson
Marie Long*
Affiliation:
Inverclyde Royal Hospital, Glasgow, United Kingdom
Rose Widdowson
Affiliation:
Inverclyde Royal Hospital, Glasgow, United Kingdom
*
*Corresponding author.
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.
Aims

This study sought to establish local adherence to the following recommendations for the management of short-term insomnia (under 3 months duration): 1. Sleep hygiene advice should be utilised prior to pharmacological management. 2. A non-benzodiazepine hypnotic medication should be prescribed. 3. A one-off trial dose of benzodiazepine or Z-drug should be prescribed prior to regular prescription.100% of patients reviewed by medical staff for insomnia are expected to meet the set standards.

Methods

Retrospective analysis of a cohort of patients (n=21), in an Adult Acute Admissions Ward in the West of Scotland. Taken over seven days in January 2023. Electronic prescriptions and chronological notes were reviewed in order to identify patients reviewed by medical staff for short-term insomnia.

Results

Of the patients reviewed for insomnia (n=8):

  • • 12.5% were offered sleep hygiene advice (n=1).

  • • 25% were prescribed a trial dose of non-benzodiazepine hypnotic medication (n=2).

  • • 25% % were prescribed regular non-benzodiazepine hypnotic medication with no trial dose (n=3).

  • • 50% were prescribed alternative sedative medication for insomnia (n=4).

Conclusion

Commonly, patients were not provided with sleep hygiene advice. The patients who were prescribed non-benzodiazepine hypnotic medication were often not prescribed a trial dose. Half of the patients were prescribed an alternative to a non-benzodiazepine hypnotic medication.

  • • Interventions will include:

    Creation of a sleep hygiene information leaflet to provide to inpatients, medical and nursing staff.

  • • Presentation of data to medical and nursing staff.

  • • Ensuring guidelines are available to all medical and nursing staff in the ward environment.

  • • The audit will be repeated in six months after the interventions.

Type
Audit
Information
BJPsych Open , Volume 9 , Supplement S1: Abstracts from the RCPsych International Congress 2023, 10–13 July , July 2023 , pp. S167 - S168
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NC
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. This does not need to be placed under each abstract, just each page is fine.
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Royal College of Psychiatrists

Footnotes

Abstracts were reviewed by the RCPsych Academic Faculty rather than by the standard BJPsych Open peer review process and should not be quoted as peer-reviewed by BJPsych Open in any subsequent publication.

Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.