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Evaluation ViewAttendees 9

Spotlight Research Presentations

Sleep / Wake Disorders

Sweet Dreams are Made of a Unified Nightmare Treatment Protocol: Expert-Driven Strategies, Manual Development, and Recommendations for Implementing Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Nightmares

Spotlight Research 14 - Sweet Dreams Are Made of a Unified Nightmare Treatment Protocol: Expert-driven Strategies, Manual Development, and Recommendations for Implementing Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Nightmares

Sunday, November 17, 2024
10:30 AM – 11:30 AM EST
Location: Liberty A, Level 3, Downtown Marriott
Earn 1 Credit
Keywords: Sleep, Trauma, Treatment Development
Recommended Readings: Davis, J.L. (2009). Treating post-trauma nightmares: A Cognitive Behavioral Approach. Springer Publishing Company.,   Pruiksma, K. E., Cranston, C.C., Rhudy, J. L. Micol, R.L., & Davis, J. L. (2018). Randomized controlled trial to dismantle Exposure, Relaxation, and Rescripting Therapy (ERRT) for trauma-related nightmares and sleep disturbances. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 10, 67-75. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/tra0000238,  
Pruiksma, K. E., Taylor, D. J., Wachen, J. S., Mintz, J., Young-McCaughan, S., Peterson, A. L., ... & Resick, P. A. (2016). Residual sleep disturbances following PTSD treatment in active duty military personnel. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 8(6), 697.
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    Chair(s)

  • Hannah C. Tyler, Ph.D.

    Assistant Professor
    University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
    Round Rock, Texas, United States

    • Panelist(s)

  • Allison K. Wilkerson, Ph.D.

    Associate Professor
    Medical University of South Carolina
    Charleston, South Carolina, United States

Trauma-related nightmares are highly distressing dreams that are associated with several comorbidities, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and suicide risk. Cognitive behavioral therapy for nightmares (CBT-N) have been shown to be effective. However, the nuances for how to implement the treatments and nomenclature for treatment components has created confusion in the field. This presentation will report on the recommendations of an expert consensus panel that convened to guide the implementation of CBT-N and will review a newly developed consensus manual.

Methods: The panel included experts in behavioral sleep medicine, trauma-related and idiopathic nightmares, insomnia, trauma, dissemination, and implementation, and who have been involved with randomized clinical trials (RCTs) of nightmare treatments. The panel met for four hours on September 22nd, 2021and October 13th, 2021, to amalgamate the components of nightmare treatment manuals that have been shown to be effective in RCTs. A consensus treatment manual informed by the scientific literature was developed. The manual was reviewed on March 2nd, 2022, for final consensus and then further refined.

Results: Recommendations pertain to (1) patient presentations; (2) assessment; (3) session length; (4) considerations for including relaxation training, stimulus control, sleep efficiency training, sleep hygiene, nightmare exposure, nightmare rescription, and imagery rehearsal of rescripted dreams; (5) nightmare treatment in the context of comorbid PTSD and/or insomnia; and (6) summarizes the components of the newly developed consensus CBT-N treatment manual.

Conclusion: This consensus treatment manual establishes unified language and a standardized approach to nightmare intervention that has been lacking in the field. Utilizing a comprehensive treatment manual based on expert recommendations and scientific evidence will help disseminate nightmare treatment and advance the field by reducing confusion across treatment protocols. The recommendations also can be further revised based on developing research evidence in nightmare treatment.

Learning Objectives:

At the end of this session, the learner will be able to:
  1. Identify at least one key strategy in recruiting collaborators to support training development.
  2. Describe at least one strategy for identifying subject expert collaborators.
  3. Identify and describe at least two ways to enhance collaboration among experts.
  4. Identify and describe the core/unified components of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Nightmares.
  5. Describe at least two supplemental components of the updated implementation recommendations for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Nightmares.