Research Paper Title

Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia treatment in a military deployed operational setting utilizing enlisted combat medics: a Quality and Process Improvement Project.

Abstract

Insomnia disorder is a prevalent condition especially among the American military, affecting up to 50% of service members. It is shown to affect military performance.

Guidelines recommend the use of nonpharmacologic approaches as initial treatment of insomnia. Cognitive behavioral therapy informed insomnia treatment (CBT-I) has the greatest evidence, however it requires specialised training.

While deployed in the Middle East in support of US military operations, the researchers faced a resource challenge while caring for service members with insomnia.

In order to meet the needs of the population, they created a checklist based CBT-I informed treatment to enable our health extenders, including combat medics and behavioral health specialists.

Following institutional review board determination of this project as non-research, the researchers implemented this as a Quality Improvement/Process Improvement Project (QI/PI). Here they describe the 4 phases of this QI/PI and their outcomes.

This process can be easily reproduced in either the deployed or garrison setting with minimum efforts and resources, enabling delivery of high quality, evidence-and guidelines-based treatment while using combat medics and behavioral health specialists to their maximum potential.

Reference

Amin, R. & Wirtz, B.E. (2017) Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia treatment in a military deployed operational setting utilizing enlisted combat medics: a Quality and Process Improvement Project. US Army Medical Department Journal. 2017 Oct-Dec;(3-17), pp.52-59.