Health & Medicine - Posted by Leslie White-U. Rochester on Monday, November 30, 2009 12:09 - 4 Comments 
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(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5) Loading ...Chemo exacerbates insomnia for cancer patients
Study participants showed they experienced sleep troubles at nearly three times the rate of the general population. The problem was more prevalent in younger patients and those with lung and breast cancers. “These numbers are very high and something we can’t ignore,” says Oxana Palesh. “The good news is that insomnia is a very treatable problem that can be addressed quickly so it doesn’t compound other symptoms.”
U. ROCHESTER (US)—Three quarters of cancer patients and survivors treated with chemotherapy suffer insomnia or sleep disorders that often become chronic conditions, hindering patients’ ability to fully recover.
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The text of this article by Futurity is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License.
“These numbers are very high and something we can’t ignore,” says Oxana Palesh, research assistant professor of radiation oncology at the University of Rochester’s James P. Wilmot Cancer Center and lead author of the paper.
“The good news is that insomnia is a very treatable problem that can be addressed quickly so it doesn’t compound other symptoms,” Palesh says.
Palesh reviewed data on 823 patients who received chemotherapy between 1997 and 1999 at private practice medical oncology groups who were part of the National Cancer Institute’s Community Clinical Oncology Program (CCOP).
The participants showed they experienced sleep troubles at nearly three times the rate of the general population. The problem was more prevalent in younger patients and those with lung and breast cancers.
Patients answered questionnaires after their first two chemotherapy treatments. Responses to sleep-related questions showed that 37 percent of participants suffered from insomnia symptoms and another 43 percent had insomnia syndrome, as categorized by the Hamilton Depression Inventory, a widely used measure for symptoms of depression. These patients had difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep at least three days per week.
The study was published online in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
The challenge is that once people experience sleep problems and related fatigue, they begin taking naps and going to bed earlier, which perpetuates the problem and is counter-productive to getting restorative sleep at night, Palesh explains.
Sleep problems are generally combined with patients complaints of fatigue and depression however, it has not been studied to determine the causes and impact on patients’ quality of life.
Authors of the National Cancer Institute-funded study recognize many factors can cause sleep difficulties, such as depression and anxiety, but note the duration of treatment and extended sleep disruptions can contribute to other health problems.
Researchers from Henry Ford Hospital, Universite Laval, University of California-San Diego, and Washington University contributed to the study.
University of Rochester news: www.rochester.edu/news
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4 Comments
These patients were questioned after their diagnosis of cancer. Studies by our group and Dr. Berger suggest that insomnia might begin before the treatments start. I agree that stress associated with the diagnosis of cancer is one of the precipitating factors for the development of insomnia, however, we don’t think that stress is the only factor. We think that treatments and tumor biology might lead to the development of insomnia in cancer patients. Regardless of what causes insomnia in cancer, we know that it becomes a persistent problem for many cancer patients and survivors and we think it should be treated in cancer patients and survivors.
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Insomnia after being diagnosed with cancer would seem to be a normal effect of stress. Were these patients questioned concerning their sleep patterns before diagnosis and between diagnosis and cemotherapy?