Resources for sleep treatment using community pharmacists (REST-UP)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Resources for effective sleep treatment - Utilising community pharmacists
IRAS ID
147730
Contact name
Karen Windle
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Lincoln
Research summary
Sleep problems are very common, affecting around forty percent of the population. Many people with sleep problems go to a pharmacist for help. Pharmacists are ideally placed to help service users, minimise drug adverse effects, and counsel on non-pharmacological sleep management techniques.
Research shows that drugs prescribed for sleep problems should only be used in the short-term as they do not work long-term, and may be harmful to service users. In a previous project called ‘Resources for Effective Sleep Treatment’ (REST), we developed and tested a brief intervention for primary care management of sleep problems termed problem-focused therapy for sleep. This approach included screening for secondary causes of insomnia, sleep assessment and tailored use of cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I). However, this approach has not been tried out in pharmacy settings.
This research study aims to find out what both pharmacists and some of their service users with sleep problems think of the current options that are available to them – what do they think works well? What does not work so well? What barriers are there to pharmacists using problem-focused therapy for sleep? How might things be improved to help service users with sleep problems? This will involve sending a questionnaire to pharmacists in Lincolnshire, and interviewing some pharmacists and service users.
Researchers want to use the information that they get from asking the above questions through surveys and interviews, together with information that they already know about the use of problem-focused therapy for sleep in GP practices, to work with pharmacists to design and test a similar model for use in pharmacy settings. Testing will include feedback from pharmacists and service users, and collection of data from sleep diaries and questionnaires about sleep and quality of life completed by service users.
REC name
South Central - Oxford C Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/SC/0156
Date of REC Opinion
12 Mar 2014
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion