Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 27, 2025

Author Spotlight: Unveiling the Connection Between Sleep Disorders and Cognitive Symptoms in Depression
Published on: April 26, 2024
Augmenting usual care SSRIs with cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia to improve depression outcomes in youth:
Greg Clarke1, Christina R Sheppler1, Alison J Firemark1
1Kaiser Permanente Northwest, Center for Health Research, 3800 N Interstate Ave, Portland, OR 97227, USA.
Importance:
Extant treatments for youth depression are only modestly effective. Alternative approaches are needed to improve health outcomes. A novel approach to improve depression outcomes is suggested by epidemiological studies finding that insomnia often predates and may contribute to depression risk. We test whether treating insomnia among youth starting a new course of SSRI antidepressants improves depression outcomes. This paper describes our study design.
Design:
2-arm randomized controlled efficacy-effectiveness trial.
Setting:
A large non-profit health maintenance organization.
Participants:
165 adolescents aged 12-19 with research-confirmed depression and insomnia diagnoses, starting a new episode of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressant treatment prescribed by their usual care provider.
Interventions:
Two sleep interventions, each 6-7 sessions, both overlaying "treatment as usual" (TAU) SSRIs: a sleep hygiene (SH) attention control condition, and cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBTI).
Conclusions And Relevance:
If CBT-I improved sleep is shown to improve depression-related outcomes, this may provide an additional, easily tolerated intervention for an important public health target.
Trial Registration:
clinicaltrials.gov, NCT02290496, https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02290496.
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