Feasibility and Efficacy of Internet-delivered CBT for Insomnia in a National Cohort of Danish Breast Cancer Survivors

May 13, 2015 updated by: University of Aarhus

Feasibility and Efficacy of an Internet-delivered Cognitive-behavioral Intervention for Insomnia in a National Cohort of Danish Breast Cancer Survivors

The aim is, in a randomized controlled trial, to test the feasibility and evaluate the efficacy of an internet-based treatment for insomnia, previously tested in a group of 28 US cancer patients, in a large sample of Danish breast cancer survivors who are experiencing significant sleep problems 0-3 years after treatment. The investigators aim to test the following hypotheses: That a group receiving Internet-delivered cognitive-behavioral therapy (CCBT) for insomnia (CCBT-I) will experience reduced sleep latency, more hours of sleep, fewer awakenings during the night, improved sleep efficiency, increased subjective sleep quality, and improved quality of life after the intervention, when compared to a waiting list control group. The investigators also aim to explore a number of possible moderators of the effect (comorbidity, depression, fear of cancer recurrence tendency to ruminate) and mediating mechanisms (changes in sleep habits and sleep-related lifestyle factors).

Study Overview

Status

Unknown

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

METHODS PARTICIPANTS

The participants are able, legally competent women, 18 years or older, from a national cohort of Danish women treated for primary breast cancer between 1st of June 2011 and 1st of Juli 2014:

Inclusion criteria: 1) Reported moderate-to-severe sleep disturbances, defined as a score> 5 on the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) (32;33) (see below), and 2) are found to be disease free. Furthermore, participants 3) are required to have access to the Internet.

Exclusion criteria: 1) Recurrence of breast cancer, 2) a second cancer, 3) and other serious physical or psychological comorbidity (e.g. depression, cardiovascular disease, and COPD), 4) shift work schedule, 5) other sleep disorders (sleep apnea, narcolepsy).

PROCEDURE INFORMATION AND REQUEST TO PARTICIPATE Women who fulfill the inclusion criteria and indicate an interest in receiving further information receive an information folder by post informing.

BASELINE MEASURES:

The baseline questionnaires contains questions about sleep quality, fatigue, depression, anxiety, quality of life, sleep habits and sleep-relevant lifestyles, together with use of health care services, sleep medication, and use of alternative medicine with the aim of treating sleep problems.

INTERVENTION:

The intervention program is designed to be completed in 6 weeks. To ensure that all participants have opportunity to complete the program they are granted access to the program for nine weeks .

POST-INTERVENTION:

After the intervention, participants in both groups are asked to complete a post-intervention questionnaire package and then to fill in the sleep diary for a 2-week period.

FOLLOW-UP:

After an additional 4 weeks both groups complete two sleep questionnaires (PSQI and the insomnia severity index) after which the waiting list group is offered the intervention.

INTERVENTION The Internet intervention offered is the SHUT-i program (Sleep Healthy Using The Internet), which is based on the existing consensus concerning non-pharmacological treatment of insomnia and builds on previous validated CBT's for insomnia (CBT -I) (34).

CONTROL GROUP Participants randomly assigned to the control condition are told that for practical reasons, they have to wait 15 weeks before partaking in the intervention.

PRIMARY ENDPOINTS A) Sleep diary (bedtime, sleep onset latency (SOL), number of awakenings, total length of awakenings, wake time, arising time, daytime naps, rating of soundness of previous night's sleep, rating of refreshed feeling upon morning awakening, and information about sleep aids : medication and/or alcohol use).

B) The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) (33). C) The Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) (39).

NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS The combined effects found in the meta-analysis of published randomized trials of Internet-based treatment for insomnia (30) are: sleep quality (d=0.41), sleep efficiency (d=0.40), number of awakenings (d=-0.45), sleep onset latency (d=-0.55), total minutes slept (d=.22), time spent in bed (d=.25). If the investigators aim to detect an effect corresponding to an average of the effects above (d = 0.38) with 80% statistical power, at least 2 x 109 participants are required.

ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS The investigators will adhere to the general ethical guidelines for human trials. All participants receive oral and written information about the project. They are informed that they can withdraw at any time from the study with no consequence for their current or future treatment. Participants are advised to continue any medical treatment for insomnia, and to consult a doctor before changing medical regimen.

PRIVACY AND DATA SECURITY The SHUT-I program stores any personal information in a separate one-way system that cannot be accessed from the Internet but only locally by the SHUT-i administrators. Connections between personal information and other data are encrypted. Data is stored physically on servers in locked facilities, in the United States.

ADVERSE EFFECTS, INCONVENIENCES, BENEFITS, AND RISKS The investigators do not expect Internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy to be associated with any adverse health effects or risks as no adverse effects has been reported for conventional CBT for insomnia.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Anticipated)

225

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Contact Backup

  • Name: Jesper Dahlgaard, PhD
  • Phone Number: +45 8716 5494 / +45 23254157
  • Email: jesper@psy.au.dk

Study Locations

      • Aarhus, Denmark, 8000
        • Recruiting
        • Unit for Psychooncology and Health Psychology, Dept. of Oncology, Aarhus University Hospital and Dept of Psychology and Behavioural Science, Aarhus University
        • Contact:
          • Jesper Dahlgaard, PhD
          • Phone Number: +45 8716 5494 / +45 23254157
          • Email: jesper@psy.au.dk
        • Contact:

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 75 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

Female

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Reported moderate-to-severe sleep disturbances, defined as a score> 5 on the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI).
  • Disease free.
  • Access to the Internet.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Recurrence of breast cancer
  • A second cancer
  • Other serious physical or psychological comorbidity (e.g. depression, cardiovascular disease, and COPD)
  • Night work schedule
  • Other sleep disorders (sleep apnea, narcolepsy) .

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: iCBT for Insomnia
The Internet intervention offered is the SHUT-i program (Sleep Healthy Using The Internet), which is based on the existing consensus concerning non-pharmacological treatment of insomnia and builds on previous validated CBT's for insomnia (CBT -I)
Internet-delivered Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia
No Intervention: Control
The control group will be offered the intervention AFTER the study

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Sleep diary
Time Frame: Up to 7 month
The online sleep diaries contains 10 standard questions including information about bedtime, sleep onset latency (SOL), number of awakenings, total length of awakenings, wake time, arising time, daytime naps, rating of soundness of previous night's sleep, rating of refreshed feeling upon morning awakening, and information about sleep aids (medication and/or alcohol use).
Up to 7 month
The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index
Time Frame: Up to 7 month
Up to 7 month
The Insomnia Severity Index
Time Frame: Up to 7 month
Up to 7 month

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy (FACIT)
Time Frame: Up to 7 month
Up to 7 month
Beck's Depression Inventory (BDI-II)
Time Frame: Up to 7 month
Up to 7 month
State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI)
Time Frame: Up to 7 month
Up to 7 month
EQ-5D
Time Frame: Up to 7 month
Up to 7 month
SF-12
Time Frame: Up to 7 month
Quality of life (QoL) is measured with the SF-12
Up to 7 month
Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ)
Time Frame: Up to 7 month
Up to 7 month
Sleep habits and sleep-relevant lifestyle
Time Frame: Up to 7 month
Is assessed by adapting, further developing, and testing in the first phase of the study an existing instrument (Suzuki E, Tsuchiya M, Hirokawa K, Taniguchi T, Mitsuhashi T, Kawakami N. Evaluation of an internet-based self-help program for better quality of sleep among Japanese workers: a randomized controlled trial. J Occup Health 2008;50(5):387-99.), that measures: activities before bedtime, eating habits before bedtime, use of stimulants (coffee, tea, cola), alcohol, activities in the bedroom, exercise, thought patterns concerning sleep, etc.
Up to 7 month
Use of health services, self-help methods, sleep medication,fatigue, morningness-eveningness type, and complementary and alternative medicine/treatment
Time Frame: Up to 7 month
Up to 7 month
Pain (questionnaire)
Time Frame: Up to 7 month
A short questionnaire assessing pain is included
Up to 7 month

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Moderator - Fear of Cancer Recurrence (FCR)
Time Frame: Up to 7 month
Up to 7 month
Moderator - Depressive symptoms (BDI-II)
Time Frame: Up to 7 month
Up to 7 month
Moderator - Charlson comorbidity index
Time Frame: Up to 7 month
Up to 7 month
Moderator -Emotional Control Scale (ECQ-R)
Time Frame: Up to 7 month
Up to 7 month
Moderator - The expected effects of and motivation to complete the intervention
Time Frame: Up to 7 month
A short questionnaire has been developed to assess the expected effects of and motivation to complete the intervention
Up to 7 month
Moderator - Use of health services, self-help methods, sleep medication, and complementary and alternative medicine/treatment
Time Frame: Up to 7 month
Up to 7 month
Moderator - Pain
Time Frame: Up to 7 month
A short questionnaire assessing pain has been developed
Up to 7 month
Moderator - Subjective response to a specific traumatic event
Time Frame: Up to 7 month

The impact of event scale-revised (Weiss, D.S. The Impact of Event Scale-Revised. In J.P. Wilson, & T.M. Keane (Eds.), Assessing psychological trauma and PTSD: A practitioner'shandbook (2nd ed., pp. 168-189).2004. New York: Guilford Press

) is included as a measure of subjective response to a specific traumatic event. This scale approximates the DSM-IV criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder. Subjective response to both breast cancer and one other self-chosen traumatic event is assessed. The delineation of the self-chosen traumatic event is based on the traumatic life event questionnaire (TLEQ)

Up to 7 month
Moderator - Traumatic Life Events Questionnaire (TLEQ)
Time Frame: Up to 7 month
Up to 7 month
Mediator - Changes in sleep habits and sleep-related lifestyle from baseline to post-intervention
Time Frame: Up to 7 month
Up to 7 month
Mediator - The experience of and satisfaction with the intervention
Time Frame: Up to 7 month

Weiss, D.S. The Impact of Event Scale-Revised. In J.P. Wilson, & T.M. Keane (Eds.), Assessing psychological trauma and PTSD: A practitioner'shandbook (2nd ed., pp. 168-189).2004. New York: Guilford Press Weiss, D.S. The Impact of Event Scale-Revised. In J.P. Wilson, & T.M. Keane (Eds.), Assessing psychological trauma and PTSD: A practitioner'shandbook (2nd ed., pp. 168-189).2004. New York: Guilford Press Measured by the instrument developed in the first trials of the SHUTi intervention (Thorndike FP, Saylor DK, Bailey ET, Gonder-Frederick L, Morin CM, Ritterband LM. Develop- ment and Perceived Utility and Impact of an Internet Intervention for Insomnia. E J Appl Psychol 2008;4(2):32-42.

)

Up to 7 month

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Investigators

  • Study Director: Robert Zachariae, MDSci, Unit for Psychooncology and Health Psychology Dept. of Oncology, Aarhus University Hospital and Dept of Psychology and Behavioural Science, Aarhus University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

December 1, 2014

Primary Completion (Anticipated)

July 1, 2015

Study Completion (Anticipated)

December 1, 2015

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

December 10, 2014

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 13, 2015

First Posted (Estimate)

May 14, 2015

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

May 14, 2015

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 13, 2015

Last Verified

December 1, 2014

More Information

Terms related to this study

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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