Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia for Chinese Adults: a RCT

Background: Insomnia is a common mental problem, where people experienced difficulty falling asleep, problem maintaining asleep and early morning awakening. It is highly prevalent world-wide and in Hong Kong, causing significant suffering and distress. While evidence based intervention exists, e.g. cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT), there will not enough therapists to meet treatment demand. A more efficient delivery of treatment, e.g. internet based therapy is called for that can delivery treatment more cost efficiently by requiring lesser therapist time. Objective: This study aims at evaluating the effectiveness of CBTi (Gp) on treating Chinese insomniac adults in Hong Kong. There has been criticism that most clinical trials have been conducted with Caucasians in Western countries and little has been done with ethnic minorities, including Asians in these countries, not to mention Asians in Asian countries, e.g., Chinese in Hong Kong. Design: A two-arm parallel-group randomised controlled trial, comparing the treatment and waitlist group Method: A CBTi protocol would be developed. Approximately 60 Chinese adults with insomnia will be recruited in Hong Kong and randomised into one of the two groups (treatment vs. waitlist). The treatment last for 6 weeks, plus a 3-month follow-up period. The primary outcome measure will be Insomnia Severity Index (ISI).