INTRODUCTION
Insomnia is a common complaint in patients attending Psychiatry clinics with nearly
four fifth reporting disturbed sleep[1]severity of the same was determined. RESULTS 83.4% of the population had some type
of sleep disorder. Symptoms of insomnia were reported by 78.2% of the population and
29.2% had moderate to severe insomnia. 78.4% of the population had poor sleep quality.
Significant difference was noted among the different psychiatric groups when insomnia
severity index (ISI. Population based studies have shown that psychiatric disorders
and sleep disturbances are frequently reported together[2]
,
[3]. Of all psychiatric disorders, major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder
and alcohol use have been repeatedly found to be associated with insomnia[4]
-
[8]. Relationship between insomnia and depression has been found to be bidirectional
and complex. Insomnia has been found to increase risk of incidental depression; has
been reported as a residual symptom after remission of depression and lastly, both
have been reported to wok in feed forward manner[6]
,
[9]. Contrarily, generalized anxiety disorder is known to increase chances of insomnia,
while the opposite has not been reported[10]
,
[11].
Similarly, use of addictive substances has been found to be associated with insomnia
in multiple ways. Use of stimulating addictive substances e.g., nicotine may induce
insomnia while withdrawal of substances with hypnotic potential e.g., alcohol is also
known to cause insomnia[12]
-
[14]. It is not uncommon to have subjects who suffer from more than one of these conditions
simultaneously. For example, use of addictive substances has been found to be associated
with depression and generalized anxiety disorder[15]. Similarly, anxiety and depressive symptoms are co-morbid and share the neurobiological
underpinnings[16].
However, most of the data relating insomnia with psychiatric disorders have emerged
from clinic-based studies. Epidemiological studies have been few and they have used
different methodologies[2]
,
[3]
,
[17]
-
[20]. Data from the clinic based studies though partly represents the epidemiological
patterns, still it can not be extrapolated to the population as the severity of symptoms
is usually higher in subjects attending clinics. This becomes important especially
in context of insomnia and depression as a dose related relationship may exist between
them[21].
Second, most of the studies have focused on relationship between insomnia and depression
and. we could find only one study that has assessed relationship between anxiety and
insomnia[2]
,
[18]
,
[19]
,
[22]
,
[23]. This study also focussed on trait anxiety rather than a specific anxiety disorder[23]. Third, as mentioned above, psychiatric disorders are often comorbid. However, in
such cases which of the disorder has most pronounced effect on insomnia is not known.
Considering these facts, present study was planned to assess prevalence of insomnia
and commonly associated psychiatric disorders- depression, generalized anxiety disorder
and addiction in Indian population. Another objective of the study was to find out
relative effect of these disorders on insomnia.
METHODS
This study was done after obtaining permission from institutional ethics committee.
For this study, adult population residing in Doiwala block (rural) and wards of Rishikesh
municipality of Dehradun district were chosen. This was a door to door survey using
validated and translated questionnaires in Hindi. Sample size was calculated based
on the prevalence of mental illnesses from a community-based study i.e. 6.1%[24] and assuming 10% of non-response rate. The sample size came out to be 1693 and it
was rounded off to 1700.
Procedure
This cross-sectional population based study was conducted in the rural and urban areas
of district Dehradun among individuals aged 20 years and above. Study spanned over
a period of 12 months. The subjects were personally interviewed after obtaining written
informed consent.
The desired sample size i.e. 1700 was distributed in rural & urban areas as per Probability
Proportionate to Size (PPS) sampling, thus making the rural sample of 1098 and urban
sample of 602[25].
After line listing, the study houses were selected by systematic random sampling.
In each selected household, all residents aged 20 years and above were listed and
one individual was selected for the study by applying “Kish” method[26]. Sampled study subjects were informed about the purpose of the study and after obtaining
their written informed consent, he/ she was interviewed.
The inclusion criteria for the study subjects were individuals aged 20 years and above,
resident of the study area for a minimum of one year and ready to give consent, while
those persons who did not fit in these criteria were excluded.
Diagnosis of insomnia
Diagnosis of insomnia was made using Hindi version of Insomnia Severity Index (ISI)[27]
,
[28]. This is a seven item questionnaire that includes items related to initiation, maintenance
of sleep and early morning awakening. Other items assess effect of insomnia on person’s
daily activities and dissatisfaction with insomnia complaints. All items are scored
on a five point Likert’s scale. Minimum score is 0 and maximum score is 28[27]. Hindi version has been found to be reliable with Cronbach’s alpha of 0.91[28].
This scale has been found to be useful in diagnosing insomnia in primary care settings
as well as in epidemiological studies[29]
,
[30]. However, different cut-off scores have been reported to detect clinical insomnia-
10 in the epidemiological study and 14 for the patients attending primary care facility[29]
,
[30]. Since, normative data was not available for Indian population, we followed the
scoring system as provided by the authors of original study- score between 0-7 depicts
no insomnia, between 8-14 depicts subthreshold insomnia, between 15-21 moderate insomnia
and score above 21 depicts severe insomnia. For present study, score above 7 was considered
as clinical insomnia.
Diagnosis of Psychiatric Disorders
Hindi version of MINI 6.0.0 was used after obtaining permission from one of the authors[31]. This structured Psychiatric interview is based upon ICD-10 criteria. For the present
study, sections of mood disorders, generalized anxiety disorder and substance use
were used. All interviews were done by one of the authors (IW). This structured interview
was used to diagnose major depressive disorder- current episode, past episode and
recurrent episodes (module A); hypomania and mania: present and past episodes (module
C); alcohol abuse and dependence: present episode (module I); substance use and substance
dependence: current episode that includes cannabis, stimulants, benzodiazepines to
name a few (module J) and generalized anxiety disorder current episode (module N).
Diagnosis of tobacco use
Tobacco use was ascertained by obtaining history from the subjects. They were asked
about the form of tobacco that they were using- chewable, smoke or sniffing. In addition,
duration and frequency of the use was also asked. However, information regarding withdrawal
symptoms and dependence could not be reliably obtained. Hence, diagnosis of “tobacco
use” was made.
Statistical Analysis
Statistical analysis was done using SPSS v. 21.0 (IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows,
Version 21.0. Armonk, NY: IBM Corp.). Chi square analysis was used to compare significance
of proportions. Statistical significance of numerical data between two groups was
analyzed using independent sample t test. Binary logistic regression was run using
the variables that were found significant in univariate analyses comparing subjects
with and without insomnia. Three models were run, first with lifetime episode of major
depressive disorder, second that included current episode of major depressive episode
along with other variables and third, including socio-demographic variables as depicted
in [Table 1].
Table 1
Comparison of subjects with and without insomnia*.
S.N.
|
Character
|
Insomnia
|
|
p
|
Present (n=175)
|
Absent (n=1525)
|
Total
|
1.
|
Gender
|
|
|
|
|
Male
|
98 (56%)
|
773 (50.7%)
|
871 (51.2%)
|
|
Female
|
77 (44%)
|
752 (49.3%)
|
829 (48.8%)
|
0.18
|
2.
|
Age (years)
|
49.16 + 14.23
|
38.23 + 13.45
|
|
<0.001
|
3.
|
Residence
|
|
|
|
|
Urban
|
75 (42.9%)
|
226 (14.8%)
|
301 (17.7%)
|
|
Peri-urban
|
35 (20%)
|
266 (17.4%)
|
301 (17.7%)
|
|
Rural
|
65 (37.1%)
|
1033 (67.7%)
|
1098 (64.6%)
|
<0.001
|
4.
|
Education
|
|
|
|
|
None
|
33 (18.9%)
|
449 (29.4%)
|
482 (28.4%)
|
|
High School (8 years)
|
30 (17.1%)
|
296 (19.4%)
|
326 (19.2%)
|
|
Intermediate (12 years)
|
69 (39.4%)
|
479 (31.4%)
|
548 (32.2%)
|
|
Graduate and above
|
43 (24.6%)
|
301 (19.7%)
|
344 (20.2%)
|
0.009
|
5.
|
Occupation
|
|
|
|
|
Not working
|
86 (49.1%)
|
828 (54.3%)
|
914 (53.8%)
|
|
Serivce
|
56 (32%)
|
406 (26.6%)
|
462 (27.2%)
|
|
Self employed
|
33 (18.8%)
|
291 (19.1%)
|
324 (19%)
|
0.06
|
6.
|
Marital Status
|
|
|
|
|
Unmarried
|
9 (5.1%)
|
242 (15.9%)
|
251 (14.8%)
|
|
Married
|
141 (80.6%)
|
1228 (80.5%)
|
1369 (80.5%)
|
|
Separated
|
25 (14.3%)
|
55 (3.6%)
|
80 (4.7%)
|
<0.001
|
7.
|
Family Type
|
|
|
|
|
Joint
|
85 (48.6%)
|
471 (30.9%)
|
556 (32.7%)
|
|
Nuclear
|
90 (51.4%)
|
1054 (69.1%)
|
1144 (67.3%)
|
<0.001
|
8.
|
Over crowding
|
|
|
|
|
Present
|
108 (61.7%)
|
883 (57.9%)
|
991 (58.3%)
|
|
Absent
|
67 (38.3%)
|
642 (42.1%)
|
709 (41.7%)
|
0.33
|
9.
|
Socio-Economic Class
|
|
|
|
|
Upper
|
4 (2.3%)
|
47 (3.1%)
|
51 (3%)
|
|
Middle
|
118 (67.4%)
|
745 (48.9%)
|
863 (50.8%)
|
|
Lower
|
53 (30.3%)
|
733 (48.1%)
|
786 (46.2%)
|
<0.001
|
10.
|
Major Depressive Episode
|
|
|
|
|
Present
|
21 (12%)
|
70 (4.6%)
|
91 (5.4%)
|
|
Absent
|
154 (88%)
|
1455 (95.4%)
|
1609 (94.6%)
|
<0.001
|
11.
|
Generalized Anxiety
|
|
|
|
|
Disorder
|
49 (28%)
|
21 (1.4%)
|
70 (4.1%)
|
|
Present
|
126 (72%)
|
1504 (98.6%)
|
1630 (95.9%)
|
<0.001
|
Absent
|
|
|
|
|
12.
|
Alcohol Dependence
|
|
|
|
|
Present
|
40 (22.9%)
|
173 (11.3%)
|
213 (12.5%)
|
|
Absent
|
135 (77.1%)
|
1352 (88.7%)
|
1487 (87.5%)
|
<0.001
|
13.
|
Cannabis Dependence
|
|
|
|
|
Present
|
10 (5.7%)
|
41 (2.4%)
|
47 (2.8%)
|
|
Absent
|
165 (94.3%)
|
1484 (97.6%)
|
1653 (97.2%)
|
0.02
|
14.
|
Tobacco use
|
77 (44%)
|
289 (19%)
|
366 (21.5%)
|
|
PresentAbsent
|
98 (56%)
|
1236 (81%)
|
1334 (78.5%)
|
<0.001
|
RESULTS
Genders represented almost equally in this study (male 51.2%), 71.4% were literate
and 80.5% were married. Nearly two third were living in nuclear families and 58.3%
reported overcrowding in the house.
Psychiatric disorders were reported by 20.5% population. Life-time prevalence of major
depressive episode was 5.4% while point prevalence was 3.6%. Lifetime prevalence of
manic episode was 0.1%. Point prevalence of generalized anxiety disorder was 4.1%.
Interestingly, tobacco was the most commonly used addictive substance (21.5%) followed
by alcohol. 12.5% met the criteria for alcohol dependence while alcohol abuse was
reported by 3.5% subjects. 3% reported cannabis dependence, while 1.1% had cannabis
abuse.
Binary logistic regression analysis was done with the variables that were found significant
in univariate analysis. First model included age, lifetime episode of major depressive
disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, tobacco use, cannabis dependence and alcohol
dependence. It classified 91.4% cases correctly and this model was overall significant
(p<0.001). This model explained for 29% variance of the included variables (Negelkerke
R square 0.286) ([Table 2]). Second model that included current episode of major depressive disorder classified
91.3% cases correctly and was overall significant (p<0.001). It explained 28% variance of the factors (Negelkerke R square 0.285) ([Table 2]). In model 3, all sociodemographic variables were also included. This classified
91.6% cases correctly and explained 37% variance. It was overall significant (p<0.001).
Table 2
Binary Logistic Regression Analysis depicting factors associated with Insomnia.
S.N.
|
Variable
|
B
|
SE
|
p
|
OR
|
95% CI
|
Lower
|
Upper
|
Model 1:
|
1.
|
Age (years)
|
0.047
|
0.006
|
<0.001
|
1.04
|
1.03
|
1.06
|
2.
|
Alcohol Dependence
|
0.30
|
0.23
|
0.19
|
1.35
|
0.85
|
2.15
|
3.
|
Cannabis Dependence
|
-1.04
|
0.50
|
0.03
|
0.35
|
0.13
|
0.94
|
4.
|
Tobacco use
|
0.93
|
0.20
|
<0.001
|
2.55
|
1.72
|
3.77
|
5.
|
Generalized Anxiety
|
3.41
|
0.33
|
<0.001
|
30.46
|
15.73
|
58.99
|
6.
|
Major Depressive Disorder Life time episodes
|
-0.49
|
0.37
|
0.18
|
0.60
|
0.29
|
1.26
|
Model 2:
|
1.
|
Age (years)
|
0.046
|
0.006
|
<0.001
|
1.04
|
1.03
|
1.06
|
2.
|
Alcohol Dependence
|
0.32
|
0.23
|
0.18
|
1.37
|
0.86
|
2.16
|
3.
|
Cannabis Dependence
|
-1.07
|
0.51
|
0.03
|
0.34
|
0.13
|
0.92
|
4.
|
Tobacco use
|
0.93
|
0.20
|
<0.001
|
2.53
|
1.71
|
3.74
|
5.
|
Generalized Anxiety
|
3.35
|
0.32
|
<0.001
|
28.58
|
15.15
|
53.90
|
6.
|
Major Depressive Disorder Current episode
|
-0.49
|
0.42
|
0.25
|
0.61
|
0.26
|
1.41
|
Model 3:
|
|
Age (in years)
|
0.05
|
0.008
|
<0.001
|
1.05
|
1.04
|
1.07
|
|
Education1
|
|
|
<0.001
|
|
|
|
|
No Education
|
-2.30
|
0.36
|
<0.001
|
0.10
|
0.04
|
0.20
|
|
High School
|
-0.94
|
0.31
|
0.003
|
0.38
|
0.20
|
0.72
|
|
Intermediate
|
-0.23
|
0.24
|
0.35
|
0.79
|
0.48
|
1.29
|
|
Occupation2
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Service
|
-0.68
|
0.26
|
0.008
|
0.50
|
0.30
|
0.83
|
|
Agriculture
|
0.04
|
0.37
|
0.90
|
1.04
|
0.50
|
2.17
|
|
Self Employed
|
-0.78
|
0.35
|
0.03
|
0.45
|
0.22
|
0.92
|
|
Socio-economic Status3
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Upper
|
-0.38
|
0.62
|
0.54
|
0.68
|
0.19
|
2.33
|
|
Middle
|
0.361
|
0.22
|
0.10
|
1.43
|
0.92
|
2.21
|
|
Marital Status4
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Married
|
-0.55
|
0.38
|
0.15
|
0.57
|
0.27
|
1.22
|
|
Unmarried
|
-1.46
|
0.60
|
0.01
|
0.23
|
0.07
|
0.76
|
|
Over Crowding Present
|
0.24
|
0.21
|
0.25
|
1.27
|
0.84
|
1.93
|
|
Major Depressive Episodes Lifetime
|
-0.31
|
0.41
|
0.43
|
0.72
|
0.32
|
1.62
|
|
Generalized anxiety disorder
|
3.22
|
0.35
|
<0.001
|
25.26
|
12.54
|
50.85
|
|
Alcohol Dependence
|
-0.045
|
0.27
|
0.86
|
0.95
|
0.56
|
1.62
|
|
Tobacco Use
|
1.44
|
0.24
|
<0.001
|
4.22
|
2.63
|
6.78
|
|
Cannabis Dependence
|
-0.96
|
0.53
|
0.07
|
0.38
|
0.13
|
1.09
|
Reference categories 1.Graduate and above; 2 Unemployed; 4 Separated; 4 Lower
DISCUSSION
In this study clinical insomnia was reported by one tenth of the adult population.
This study also showed that in increasing age, higher education, umemployment, tobacco
use and generalized anxiety disorder increased the odds for having clinical insomnia.
Among these, older age is an established risk factor for clinical insomnia[32]. However, other four findings (tobacco use, generalized anxiety disorder, unemployment
and higher education) are novel as they have not been investigated general population,
to best of our knowledge. Even more interesting was the fact that in multivariate
analysis, socio-demographic factors like socio-economic status, marital status, family
type, crowding, major depressive disorder, and alcohol dependence were excluded from
the model, many of which are established risk factor for insomnia.
In previous epidemiological studies, prevalence if insomnia has been reported to vary
between 10.2-19.7%[2]
,
[9]
,
[23]
,
[33]. This difference is related to difference in methodology of the study. For example,
studies using sleep diary[23] reported higher prevalence compared to those using structured interview[2]. Other factors e.g., criteria followed to diagnose insomnia, characteristics of
population included viz., age, race, gender, use of addictive substances and comorbidities
also influenced the results of previous studies[32]. In present study, ISI was used to diagnose insomnia, which contained items related
to initial, middle and terminal insomnia as well as effect of insomnia on daytime
functions[27]
,
[28]. It assessed symptoms within a span of past seven days, which was contrary to the
present definition of insomnia that focuses on frequency as well as duration of symptoms[32].
A recent meta-analysis reported that ISI could be used as a reliable tool to diagnose
insomnia with 88% sensitivity and 81% specificity, substantiating the results of present
study[34]. Another issue is- whether objective methods would have influenced the results of
the study? In one of the earlier studies, objective assessment had shown higher prevalence
of insomnia, compared to subjective report, which is contrary to the standard definition
of insomnia, which focuses on subjective report[32]
,
[33]. Hence, we opine that results of present study are reliable.
Contrary to the established fact that females are predisposed to insomnia, we did
not find effect of gender in present study on prevalence of insomnia[32]. In earlier studies, female preponderance for insomnia has been ascribed to multiple
factors e.g., genetic factors, predisposition towards anxiety, depression and coping
styles to name a few[23]. However, this data was from western population and a meta-analysis has also reported
male predisposition for insomnia in East Asian population[35]. Though the reasons are not entirely clear, it is possible that other factors interacted
with gender to nullify the gender predisposition in present study. For example, three
factors- increasing years of education, urban population and middle socio-economic
group had higher prevalence of insomnia in this study.
It is possible that these factors exposed male subjects to emotional stresses, most
of who were bread-earners for their family compared to female subjects who were largely
home-makers. Gender difference in coping-skills is known with women more frequently
using socialization while men focus on the problem and may get indulged in rumination[36]. Rumination related to daytime issues has been reported in this population when
they were not able to fall asleep, and can perpetuate insomnia by increasing stress,
as described in stress-diathesis theory of insomnia[32]
,
[37]. Other possibility could be related to use of addictive substances like tobacco
and alcohol, which are culturally more acceptable among males. This could have increased
the rates of insomnia among males leading to disappearance of gender effect. Lastly,
in the Indian society, males are mainly responsible for providing financial support
to the family, and high rates of unemployment, as discussed above could have led to
higher prevalence of insomnia among males.
Higher education and unemployment were associated with insomnia in present study.
However, previous studies have shown higher prevalence of insomnia among subjects
with lower education and among unemployed subjects[38]
,
[39]. Difference in the results of the present study could be related to high proportion
of unemployment seen among subjects with graduation or higher education. This could
have led to stress and consequent insomnia. Consistent with the results of present
study, role of socio-economic variables is unclear with one study showing increased
prevalence of insomnia among socially disadvantaged persons, while other showing inconsistent
relationship[38]
,
[39]. Interestingly, type of family and crowding were not associated with insomnia in
this study.
Previous data have shown that single women parents have higher risk of having insomnia,
whereas two-parents living in a nuclear family have lesser chances to have insomnia[40]
,
[41]. Joint families may improve the sleep by sharing the household responsibilities
among members, however, this effect may be culture specific. In traditional Indian
setting, younger women in the joint family carry the burden of household work, that
of child-care as well as care of elders. These responsibilities increase the stress
and could be one reason why we did not find any difference between family types. Though
theoretically, crowding in the bedroom may impair sleep quality, yet we did not find
any effect of overcrowding in this study. In Indian settings, bed-room is usually
shared among parents and young children. Most of people grow with this habit and hence,
it may not impair their sleep. This is in concordance with results of previous study[42]. However, these findings need to be examined in future.
Insomnia has been found to be associated with clinically significant depression as
well as anxiety in previous studies[19]
,
[23]. However, it must be remembered that methodology was different across studies. For
diagnosis of depression different methods have been used e.g., Beck’s depression inventory
(BDI)[23] or patient health questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9)[19]. Among these, BDI contains items related to somatic as well as cognitive components,
both of which are seen in subjects with insomnia. This can lead to spurious diagnosis
of depression in these patients[32]. On the other hand, MINI focuses on cardinal (i.e., emotional) symptoms of depression.
This could have led to exclusion of cases with prominent somatic and cognitive symptoms
that are usually seen as daytime manifestations of insomnia. This could be one reason,
why we did not find association between major depressive disorder and insomnia in
present study in all models ([Table 2]).
This finding is reiterated by studies which reported improvement in depressive symptoms
after adequate management of insomnia[43]. Secondly, most of the studies have focused on depression and did not assess anxiety
concurrently, thus comparative effect of anxiety and depression could not be assessed[2]
,
[19]. van Mill et al.[44] assessed both major depressive disorders as well as generalized anxiety disorder
and reported that both disorders increased odds for insomnia. Among all anxiety disorders,
only subjects with generalized anxiety disorder have shown the polysomnographic evidence
of disturbed sleep[45]
,
[46]. Still, there is dearth of literature that has assessed effect of comorbid depression
and anxiety disorders on insomnia, and this study was an attempt to fill that gap[46].
Alcohol dependence did not influence insomnia in this study while tobacco use increased
the odds for insomnia. Though the insomnia was more prevalent in subjects with alcohol
dependence in univariate analysis, as seen in a previous studies[47]
,
[48], this effect disappeared during multivariate analysis. In Indian clinical settings,
it has been observed that most of the patients use nicotine in any form (chewing or
smoking) after taking alcohol. It is possible that insomnia in these subjects is actually
related to nicotine rather than alcohol, as seen in present as well as earlier study[48]. In addition, psychiatric disorders have been found to influence occurrence of insomnia
among subjects with alcohol dependence in various studies, similar to the findings
of the present study[48]
,
[49].
It must be noted that previous studies assessing association between insomnia and
alcohol had different methodology compared to present study. Their cohort was subjects
having alcohol related disorders, on the contrary, present study was population based;
hence, head to head comparison of these studies was not possible. Another interesting
finding was lesser prevalence of insomnia among cannabis users. This could be related
to pharmacological properties of cannabis and requires further investigation. Nabinol
and cannabinol, both of which are cannabinoids are known to reduce sleep onset latency
and relieve obstructive sleep apnea; contrarily, cannabis withdrawal is associated
with sleep disruption[50]
,
[51]. However, effect of cannabis disappeared when socio-economic variables were entered
(model 3, [Table 2]) suggesting an interaction between cannabis and socio-demographic factors, which
requires further investigation.
Like any other scientific investigation, this study also had some methodological limitations.
First, diagnosis of insomnia as well as psychiatric disorders was made using structured
interview rather than clinical interview. However, measures that were used have optimal
psychometric properties making them suitable for epidemiological study, as mentioned
in methodology. Second, because of the study design we could not assess differential
effect of amount and frequency of addictive substances on prevalence of insomnia.
This is an area worth investigating and will be assessed in future. Third, we did
not rule out effect of other disorders that may interfere with sleep e.g., circadian
rhythm sleep disorder, sleep apnea and restless legs syndrome. Fourth, other medical
disorders e.g., congestive heart failure and chronic pain to name a few, are known
to be associated with sleep disturbances. They were not addressed in the present study.
In conclusion, this study showed that insomnia affects around 10% of the population.
It was associated with unemployment, higher education, generalized anxiety disorder
and tobacco use in the community based sample.