Wednesday, September 18 at 2:00pm ET 

The prevalence of nightmare disorder in the general population is 5%. Nightmares are typically characterized as idiopathic (i.e., from an unknown cause) or trauma-related (i.e., beginning or changing in frequency, severity, or content after a traumatic event). Nightmares are reported by 30% of trauma-exposed civilians, 50% of trauma-exposed veterans, and 30-40% of active duty military personnel and members of the National Guard. Among individuals diagnosed with PTSD, nightmare rates are higher and are reported by 57% of civilians with PTSD and 50-70% of active duty service members with PTSD. A variety of cognitive behavioral interventions show promise for the treatment of nightmares and also improve insomnia, PTSD, and depression. There is a wide range of names for the various treatments tested in randomized controlled trials, which creates challenges in comparing treatment efficacy by protocol in systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Furthermore, there are not enough providers trained in CBT-N. This presentation will bridge the gap by summarizing data regarding the definition and prevalence of nightmares, providing an overview of CBT-N protocols, describing research of the efficacy of CBT-N in PTSD, and describing a newly developed, DoD funded, web-based provider training for CBT-N.

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About the Presenter

KRISTI PRUIKSMA, PhD, DBSM is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. She is a licensed clinical psychologist and a Diplomat for Behavioral Sleep Medicine. Her work focuses on clinical research and supporting dissemination of evidence-based treatments for sleep disorders and PTSD with a focus on active duty military personnel in affiliation with the STRONG STAR Consortium. She has published more than 50 empirically- reviewed articles and is currently the PI of a DoD funded project to build and test a web-based provider training for CBT for nightmares and a DoD funded project comparing CBT-I and BBT-I in active duty service members with postconcussive symptoms following Mild TBI.