Background: Insomnia is common among people with mental health conditions and can exacerbate symptoms, impair functioning and negatively impact treatment outcomes. Community mental health services require practical data to quantify the burden of insomnia in routine care and to identify groups at a higher risk of experiencing clinically significant insomnia. Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of anonymized routinely collected clinical data from adult psychiatric outpatients attending the Community Mental Health Center in Bra (Department of Mental Health, Asl Cuneo 2, Italy). Consecutive patients were included over a three-month period (1 September to 30 November 2025). Insomnia severity was assessed using the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI). Diagnoses were established by psychiatrists using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-5 (SCID-5). Results: The sample included 506 patients (mean age: 45.1 ± 16.7 years; 265 women, 52.4%). The mean ISI total score was 12.18 ± 6.99. Clinically significant insomnia (ISI ≥ 15) was present in 205 out of 506 patients (40.5%), while severe insomnia (ISI ≥ 22) was present in 55 out of 506 patients (10.9%). The ISI score differed across diagnostic groups (ANOVA, F(8, 497) = 2.82, p = 0.0046, η2 = 0.043). Post hoc comparisons revealed higher ISI scores in patients with depressive disorders than in those with anxiety disorders (Tukey, p = 0.0056). In a multivariable logistic regression model (outcome: ISI score of at least 15), adjusted for age, sex, education and the complexity of concurrent psychotropic medication (number of medication classes), depressive disorders were associated with clinically significant insomnia (OR: 1.99; 95% CI: 1.07–3.73). Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) also showed higher odds (OR: 3.64; 95% CI: 1.26–10.55). Medication complexity was also associated with an ISI score of at least 15 (OR: 1.43 per additional class; 95% CI: 1.16–1.77). In a sensitivity model additionally adjusting for benzodiazepine prescription (yes/no), benzodiazepine prescription was associated with ISI ≥ 15 (OR 1.82; 95% CI 1.13–2.95), while the estimate for medication complexity was attenuated using this association (OR 1.17; 95% CI 0.90–1.53). The eating disorders group was excluded from multivariable models due to the very small sample size (n = 4). Conclusions: Clinically significant insomnia was prevalent among this sample of psychiatric outpatients, with modest differences in insomnia severity across diagnostic groups. Sensitivity analyses suggested that the signal of medication complexity may be partly accounted for by benzodiazepine prescribing, supporting the cautious interpretation of medication-related correlates in routine cross-sectional data. These findings support routine insomnia screening in psychiatric outpatient care, while prospective studies are needed to clarify directionality and clinical implications.
Martiadis et al. (Tue,) studied this question.