Furthermore, treating insomnia in patients with major depressive disorder improves antidepressant response, Dr. Drake said.

In a study published in the journal Biological Psychiatry in 2006, patients who took both the sleep aid eszopiclone (Lunesta) and fluoxetine (Prozac) had an antidepressant response about two weeks earlier than patients treated with fluoxetine alone (P=0.0002).

Eszopiclone and fluoxetine together also significantly improved on both the overall Hamilton depression scores and Hamilton scores excluding insomnia-related items compared to fluoxetine alone. Significantly more patients treated for both depression and insomnia reached remission as well (42% versus 32.8%, P=0.03).

While there are few controlled trials of treatment of comorbid insomnia among patients with other psychiatric and medical conditions, there is some evidence of benefit for those with mixed psychiatric conditions, alcoholism, post-traumatic stress disorder, and Alzheimer's disease, according to a study in the journal Sleep Medicine Reviews last year.

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