Strategie abituali di regolazione delle emozioni come predittori della risposta al trattamento cognitivo-comportamentale per l’insonnia

Cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is to date the recommended treatment for insomnia in adults. The predictors of treatment response, however, remain under-researched. In this context, emotion regulation abilities are conceived as transdiagnostic factors predicting the onset of psychopathology, physical disease, and potentially modulating treatment response in psychotherapies. The aim of this study was to assess the predictive role of two emotion regulation strategies (i.e., cognitive reappraisal and behavioural suppression), in treatment response to two CBT-I interventions. Twenty-six young adults were randomly assigned to either individual (iCBT-I, n=13) or self-help (sh-CBT-I) four-week interventions. Mixed design factorial ANOVA demonstrated the efficacy of both interventions in reducing insomnia, with a larger effect for iCBT-I. Moderated regression analyses also showed that cognitive reappraisal moderated the differential efficacy of the two interventions. Particularly, iCBT- was effective in reducing insomnia only in those reporting high levels of cognitive reappraisal. Instead, we found no differences in efficacy between iCBT-I and sh-CBT-I for those with low and moderate levels of cognitive reappraisal, nor at varying levels of behavioural suppression. Results suggest to assess emotion regulation abilities in randomised control trials in insomnia.