# A patient-focused intervention to promote effective insomnia treatment

> **NIH VA I21** · MINNEAPOLIS VA  MEDICAL CENTER · 2020 · —

## Abstract

Background: Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is an evidence-based psychotherapy that
rapidly produces large improvements in sleep. Guidelines for management of chronic insomnia recommend
that all patients receive CBT-I as the initial treatment, however, CBT-I is not routinely offered to patients.
Instead, most patients are prescribed sedative-hypnotics that have adverse cognitive and behavioral effects.
Evidence is needed to determine if proactive population-based outreach using social marketing strategies and
providing patients with self-management CBT-I tools can improve care by simultaneously increasing the
uptake of CBT-I and decreasing sedative-hypnotic use.
Significance/Impact: Insomnia is a debilitating sleep disorder that disproportionally effects Veterans and is
increasingly recognized as an urgent post-deployment health concern. The proposed pilot work supports a low-
cost proactive population-level approach that, if proven effective, has great potential for transforming insomnia
care. This work is directly responsive to the HSR&D priority area of Mental Health/PTSD, Women’s Health,
Aging and Opioid/Pain by targeting outreach to these populations. The proposed work advances the HSR&D
priority domain of Virtual Care/Telehealth by providing Veterans with self-management CBT-I tools to eliminate
access barriers.
Innovation: Proactive population-based outreach to improve insomnia care is an innovative and previously
unexplored approach to rapidly and inexpensively promoting CBT-I uptake across diverse healthcare facilities
for Veterans in need of safe and effective insomnia treatment. A second major innovation of this pilot work is
incorporating self-management CBT-I tools into the direct-to-consumer marketing campaign, helping to shift
the dominant clinical practice paradigm away from resource-intensive and inconvenient face-to-face therapy.
Specific Aims: We propose critical pilot work for a national randomized trial to compare the effect of a CBT-I
marketing campaign with self-management tools to standard provider-delivered CBT-I. Aim 1: To develop
compelling messages and appropriate channels for a CBT-I social marketing campaign using preferences and
perspectives from key segments of the target audience. Aim 2: To determine patient preferences for self-
management CBT-I tools included in the campaign. Aim 3:To obtain provider perspectives on eliminating
barriers to CBT-I uptake through use of patient education and provision of self-management tools.
Methodology: Social marketing methods will be used to create high-impact materials with compelling
messages. We will refine materials using qualitative data collected from Veteran focus groups, with a focus on
women Veterans, older Veterans and Veterans with chronic pain since these groups are at increased risk from
sedative-hypnotics use. A patient engagement panel will be actively involved throughout the project to enhance
research protocols, interpretation of findings and...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9933207
- **Project number:** 1I21HX002997-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** MINNEAPOLIS VA  MEDICAL CENTER
- **Principal Investigator:** Erin Koffel
- **Activity code:** I21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** VA
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** —
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-06-01 → 2021-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9933207

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9933207, A patient-focused intervention to promote effective insomnia treatment (1I21HX002997-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9933207. Licensed CC0.

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