This article provides rationale for utilizing a suicide screening procedure in a sleep medicine setting and offers suggested elements for such screening. The authors note that the connection between sleep problems and suicide risk has become well established, although the mechanisms of this relationship are not yet clear. Even though research on the relationship between sleep problems and suicide is not new (these authors note that the relationship was known nearly sixty years ago!), an increase in the amount and specificity of research examining sleep and suicide has been fairly recent and has led to the inclusion of sleep disturbance as both a risk factor and a warning sign for suicide risk.
I have noticed that more than half of my military-connected patients with PTSD have been diagnosed with sleep apnea as well, and some are younger (e.g., in their 30s). Consistent with my observations, a study with 195 Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans between 21 to 59 seeking care at outpatient VA clinics identified nearly 70% of the participants with a high risk for sleep apnea and noted that the risk increased with the severity of PTSD symptoms (Colvonen et al., 2015).
There is a growing public awareness of the importance of sleep to overall health and mental health. Reporting on health related issues continues to emphasis the importance of good sleep to so many aspects of our overall health. Research has demonstrated links to learning and memory, metabolism and weight, mood, and cardiovascular health.
In the first part of this blog, I discussed the historical use and current trends in use of tobacco in the military population. This time around we're going to examine another widely-used and socially-sanctioned substance, caffeine. If tobacco is the spark to the battle weary individual, it is surely coffee or caffeine that is gas that feeds the ever-elusive energy flame