Study objectives: To examine the most commonly perceived barriers to treatment seeking among individuals in the United Kingdom diagnosed with primary insomnia. Although there are effective treatments, the rate of insomnia in the United Kingdom is 22%, which is substantially higher than in other parts of Europe and in the United States.
Design: Cross-sectional.
Setting: Treatment and research clinic at a university department of psychiatry.
Participants: Fifty-six women and 29 men who met Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition-TR criteria for primary insomnia who had (n = 48) or had not (n = 37) sought treatment.
Interventions: N/A.
Measurements and results: Endorsement of reasons for not seeking treatment on the Barriers to Treatment Questionnaire. The most commonly endorsed reasons for not seeking treatment were the perception of insomnia as benign, trivial, or a problem that one should be able to cope with alone. Other commonly endorsed barriers to treatment related to lack of awareness of treatment options and to perception of the available treatment options as ineffective and unattractive.
Conclusions: Given the chronicity and serious adverse consequences of insomnia, this study suggests that programs of public health awareness designed to reduce the perception of insomnia as trivial and to increase awareness of the effective treatments available may be important for reducing the prevalence of insomnia in the United Kingdom.