What are the mechanisms behind current drug treatments for insomnia?
Insomnia is the most common sleep disorder, and approximately 30% of adults experience symptoms of insomnia worldwide (1). Insomnia can develop from several different risk factors and can seriously impact quality of life and lead to neurodegenerative diseases, as seen in Figure 1. As our knowledge of the biochemical basis of sleep has continuously evolved since the 19th century, targeted therapies for insomnia have shifted from common sedatives to clinical, FDA-approved treatments. Currently, the most common drug treatment for insomnia utilizes a class of drugs called benzodiazepines (2). However, recently, other non-benzodiazepines have emerged as promising insomnia treatments. In addition, many drugs that are not FDA-approved for use in insomnia are commonly used as sleep aids. While the mechanisms of sleep are still being understood, significant progress has been made over the last few decades in understanding how to treat sleep disorders and how current drug treatments work. Read the Background Section for more details!
Overall, I think the question section is clear and concise. I understand what the problem is and why does it matter consider series of risk factor that contribute to the same illness (insomnia). However, I think if Figure 1. is mention within the paragraph it would improve the flow of the paragraph. After reading the paragraph, there was a moment where I could not relate Figure 1. to the information above. Lastly, I believe there could be some improvement make upon the transition of benzodiazepines and emergence of more therapies. It was hard for me to relate those two ideas together because the following sentence is not about benzodiazepines even though it was stated to be most common class of drugs.
Edited for clarity!
This page does a good job of giving a brief preview of the question here. I think it maybe beneficial to switch the order of 2 of the sentences to flow better. The sentences I’m talking about: “The most common treatment is a class of drugs called benzodiazepines (2).” and “Recently, more and more therapies, including some not FDA-approved, have emerged as viable treatments”.
Another note is that although figure 1 provides good information about risk factors and implications of insomnia, it isn’t referenced in the paragraph. Personally I think a reference to figure 1 at “Insomnia can develop from several different risk factors and can seriously impact quality of life and lead to neurodegenerative diseases. ” would fit well.
Added! I made sure to link Figure 1 to the text so there’s a bit more clarity as to what risk factors contribute to insomnia.
I think this page provides a solid background for what is covered in the rest of the website. I am curious if there have been any negative side effects of the drugs you mention for targeting insomnia like benzodiazepines. Overall it is a good introduction to the website. I do think it could be good to briefly mention some examples of risk factors in this page as well.
The side effects of insomnia drugs is not something we wanted to focus on in this project, but in general modern drug treatments are less toxic than historically used drugs.
I think the question page is concise which is good. However, I’m not sure the last sentence is needed… instead maybe introduce more means of treating insomnia discussed in the background. Also as JP mentioned, you should definitely discuss the figure in the paragraph as well.
Well done on this page. I think the problem at hand is clearly described and offers a good introduction to what is currently being done to mitigate these issues. I’m wondering what the possible drawbacks of the large number of non-FDA approved drugs and remedies could be. I also think the figure you have on this page is easy to understand and provides an easy way to begin thinking about what could cause the problem.