As our world becomes increasingly digital, our healthcare services will adapt and take advantage of the new opportunties this opens up. At the same time, our patients will continue to expect human contact. With the average increase in life expectancy, as well as new treatments being available to cure or control different diseases, comorbidities are becoming more and more prevalent in most chronic diseases. As we are well aware, stress, insomnia, and depression are all comorbidities relevant to pain. Taking into account these issues, the theme for the #EFIC2022 Congress in Dublin, Ireland is “Targeting pain and its comorbidities in the Digital Age“.
One significant comorbidity is sleep problems, particularly insomnia. Insomnia symptoms are highly prevalent in individuals presenting with pain conditions. For example, up to 71% of people with osteoarthritis, 59% of LBP, and 41% of neck pain patients are either diagnosed with insomnia or report significant insomnia symptoms. These symptoms include poor sleep quality, non-restorative sleep, early awakenings, and difficulty initiating and maintaining sleep. Insomnia is no longer viewed as a consequence of pain or depression but as a parallel condition which requires specific management.
We urgently need to
- Understand the purpose of sleep and by what mechanisms does it lead to chronic pain
- Assess sleep problems and identify treatment targets
- Develop better treatments for sleep and chronic pain
These presentations will focus on the crucial role of sleep in health and well-being at #EFIC2022 on Wednesday, 27 April 2022:
| Title | Speaker | Time |
| Endotyping of the sleep-pain interaction | TBC |
10.55 – 11.20 (25 mins) |
| Hybrid cognitive-behavioural therapy for pain-related insomnia in primary care | Nicole KY Tang (United Kingdom) |
11.20 – 11.45 (25 mins) |
| Efficacy of digital interventions for paediatric pain: Optimizing treatment through tailoring for sleep problems | Tonya Palermo (United States) | 13.40 – 14.00 (20 mins) |
| The role of sleep disturbances in pain amplification and persistence | Monika Haack (United States) | 14.30 – 14.55 (25mins) |
| Why do we sleep? | Retro Huber (Switzerland) |
16.40 – 16.50 (20mins) |
| The Glymphatic system and sleep | Maiken Nedergaard (United States) |
16.50 – 17.10 (20 mins) |
| Treating and Monitoring sleep in patients with pain | Tiina Paunio (Finland) |
17.10 – 17.30 (20 mins) |
