Hypnotic Medication Use

Abstract

Hypnotic medications are widely prescribed for the treatment of insomnia, and, either due to patient preference or medical necessity, some patients must discontinue use of hypnotics after using these medications for long periods of time. Helping patients to discontinue use of hypnotics can be clinically challenging. Hypnotic taper interventions as well as hypnotic taper interventions combined with cognitive behavior therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) are generally useful in helping patients discontinue use without significant disruption to sleep. Interventions that include CBT-I seem to have greater long-term benefits as patients experience improvements in sleep that are long-lasting and are better able to abstain from hypnotic use in the future. Additional research to incorporate motivational enhancement strategies and better understand the optimal timing and structure of hypnotic medication tapering interventions with CBT-I are needed.