[The quality of sleep associated with polypharmacy].

OBJECTIVE

Study of the association between multiple medication and the quality of sleep.

DESIGN

Observational, cross-sectional study through two-stage sampling of 1053 people with a questionnaire and application of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Interview (PSQI).

SETTING

Primary care. Population covered by health centres in the province of Valladolid.

POPULATION

Adults over 18 who attended health centres in Valladolid province.

RESULTS

As consumption of multiple drugs rose, there was significant deterioration in the overall quality of sleep and each of the following components: subjective quality, latency of sleep, duration of sleep, extrinsic disturbances and consumption of sleeping draughts. No differences were found for day-time repercussions. When psychiatric drug consumption was excluded from the study (to avoid the risk of bias in psychiatric illnesses), deterioration in the quality of sleep, on adding up the remaining therapeutic groups of drugs, was still found.

CONCLUSIONS

The fact of consuming multiple drugs chronically may condition a deterioration in sleep quality, which will stimulate us to combat this symptom with more drugs and so further aggravate the problem. New prospective studies need to be undertaken to find out the reasons.