Assessing the impact of brief CBTi on dissociative seizures: SCED No.1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Assessing the impact of brief cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia on sleep in a dissociative seizure population, using a single-case experimental design.
IRAS ID
331958
Contact name
Jessica Fish
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
The University of Glasgow
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 8 months, 2 days
Research summary
Some people experience a temporary change in behaviour and consciousness, that often involves a collapse and/or shaking limb movements. These are referred to as ‘Dissociative seizures’. Those who experience such seizures have been found to also display high levels of dissociation, which can be described as a change in your conscious experience and may include gaps in your memory for events. It is thought that people who experience dissociative seizures also often have difficulties with their sleep. Having difficulties with sleep may make these seizures and the amount of dissociation an individual experiences worse. Greater dissociation may be additionally linked to worsening dissociative seizures. A psychological intervention for sleep difficulties called Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia (CBTi), has been found to be effective in reducing sleep difficulties.
This study will investigate whether improving sleep by administering a brief version of CBTi leads to an improvement in levels of dissociation and dissociative seizure frequency. It will also investigate whether brief CBTi is a feasible treatment method for sleep difficulties in an inpatient setting. Participants who have dissociative seizures and sleep difficulties that could be diagnosed as insomnia will be randomly assigned to a baseline phase of 5, 7 or 9 days, where they will fill out daily questionnaires on their sleep, dissociation and number of seizures. They will then begin a 10 day intervention phase where they will attend two sessions of brief CBTi, whilst also completing daily measures. This will allow us to see whether their scores on the sleep and dissociation measures improve when the intervention begins. Participants will be asked to wear an Actiwatch during the night, to gather information on their activity levels during the night. Information on changes in quality of life, mood and anxiety levels following the sleep intervention will also be collected.
REC name
West of Scotland REC 4
REC reference
24/WS/0001
Date of REC Opinion
23 Feb 2024
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion