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Longitudinal trends of sleep services for veterans with and without serious mental illness in VA electronic health records.

Bonfils, Longenecker, Seo, Soreca, Hammer, Tighe, Beals, Haas, Bramoweth. Longitudinal trends of sleep services for veterans with and without serious mental illness in VA electronic health records. Journal of affective disorders. 2025 Jun 15; 379:241-249, DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2025.03.022.

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Abstract:

Sleep problems commonly co-occur with serious mental illnesses (SMI) and are associated with negative outcomes, though may be underrecognized and undertreated. This study examined whether clinical services for sleep disorders among Veterans with and without SMI changed during the past decade. The sample included Veterans with a diagnosed sleep disorder in VA VISN 4 (Pennsylvania and sections of Ohio, New Jersey and Delaware) electronic health record data from 2011 to 2019 (N  =  77,898). Results revealed that, across 9 years of data, half of Veterans received no sleep services, but among those that did, sleep medications were most common., Notably, Veterans with SMI and sleep disorders were more likely than those without SMI to receive any sleep services, but the proportion of all Veterans receiving sleep services declined across the study period. Results from this study demonstrate that the needs of Veterans with SMI and sleep disorders are met equally well as those of Veterans without SMI, but there remains a large unmet need for all Veterans with sleep disorders, half of whom did not receive any services. Future work should investigate provider and patient perspectives regarding barriers and facilitators to engaging with sleep services, particularly services other than medication.




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