Do Patients With Sleep-Wake Disorders Keep YOU Up at Night? Strategies for Identifying and Managing Patients With a “Sleep Debt”

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Program Overview:
Sleep disorders are common in all sections of the population and are either the main clinical complaint or a frequent complication of many conditions. Sleep-wake disorders alone affect 21% of the adult population. The responsibility of identifying and managing these patients is often up to the primary care clinician. While effective and efficient tools for screening and recognition of the various presentations of sleep disorders, including sleep-wake disorders, are available, primary care clinicians characterize their knowledge as poor to fair, lacking the awareness and the confidence to properly diagnose and effectively treat these disorders.

To more optimally manage patients with sleep-wake disorders, this activity will provide information that is needed to differentiate between common symptoms of disorders occurring comorbid with sleep-wake disturbances and those in which sleep-wake disturbances are primary. The overarching focus of this session is identifying the diagnosis and treatment modalities for excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS). This will consist of discussion related to normal sleep hygiene and consequences of sleep-wake disturbances; insomnia, primary and secondary inclusive of medical and psychiatric comorbidity; and review of confounding diagnoses, including obstructive sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome, and narcolepsy.

Through facilitated didactic and case-based learning new confidence will emerge when learning about integrating patient assessment tools and sleep scales into clinical practice, treating patients, and how best to develop strategies to optimize outcomes for patients with sleep-wake disorders.

Learning Objectives:
After completing this activity, the participant will be able to

1.   Integrate the use of screening tools to differentiate primary versus secondary sleep disorders
2.   Identify the treatment strategies based on individual patient factors and characteristics

Accreditation/Designation Statement:
Primary Care Network, Inc. is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

Primary Care Network designates this educational activity for a maximum of 1.25 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Target Audience:
This activity is targeted to all physicians and other healthcare professionals who treat patients with sleep disorders.

Release Date: November 19, 2009
Expiration Date: November 19, 2010

Medium: Podcast

Acknowledgment of Commercial Support:
This activity was developed from the live Best Practices in Primary Care™ program held in Dallas, Texas, on October 23, 2009, and is funded by Cephalon, Inc.

Method of Participation:
To receive CME credit for this activity, you need to listen to the program. Upon finishing the podcast, complete the post-test and evaluation and fill out all required personal information. To receive your CME certificate you will need to pass the post-test with 70% accuracy or better.

Post-test and Evaluation:
After completing this activity, click on the Post-test button at the end of the program. If you receive less than 70% on the post-test, you will be returned to the beginning of the activity to review the presentation again. Upon successful completion of the post-test, you will be asked to fill out a program evaluation form and prompted to print your CME certificate.

Statement of Disclosure and Independence:
It is the policy of Primary Care Network, Inc. to ensure all its sponsored educational activities are planned, developed, and conducted in accordance with the ACCME’s Essential Areas and Policies. In accordance with ACCME requirements, Primary Care Network has Conflict of Interest and Disclosure Policies that are designed to ensure that Primary Care Network sponsored educational activities are fair balanced, independent, evidence‐based and based on scientific rigor.

Primary Care Network’s Resolution of Personal Conflicts of Interest (COI) Policy aims to ensure that all conflicts are resolved prior to the activity, content is developed and presented free of commercial bias, and is in the interest of promoting improvements or quality in healthcare. All individuals who are in a position to influence and/or control content of a Primary Care Network sponsored activity are required to disclose to the participants any real or apparent conflict of interest related to the activity. The educational content is also reviewed for independence and content validation by an independent external clinical reviewer and internal clinical reviewer. Independence is also monitored through the activity and overall program evaluation process.

The opinions, ideas, recommendations, and perspectives expressed in the accompanying presentations at this Primary Care Education program are those of the program authors and presenting faculty only and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, ideas, recommendations or perspectives of their affiliated institutions, Primary Care Network, Primary Care Education, Advisory Boards and Consultants, or the activity’s commercial supporters.

Faculty and Planning Committee Disclosures:
Joseph A. Lieberman III, MD, MPH
Professor of Family Medicine
Jefferson Medical College
Thomas Jefferson University
Associate Editor, Delaware Medical Journal
Philadelphia, PA

Dr. Lieberman serves on the speaker’s bureau for sanofi-aventis and Takeda. He also serves on an advisory board for sanofi-aventis, Somaxon, Takeda, and Wyeth.

Michael J. Thorpy, MD
Professor of Neurology
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Bronx, NY

Dr. Thorpy serves on the speaker’s bureau and advisory board for Cephalon, Jazz Pharmaceuticals, and sanofi-aventis. He is also on an advisory board for GlaxoSmithKline
and is a consultant to Cephalon.

Lawrence Sherman, FACME, CCMEP
President & CEO
Physicians Academy
New York, NY

Mr. Sherman has no relevant financial relationships to disclose.

Barry A. Fiedel, PhD
Senior Vice President, Clinical & Editorial Services
Physicians Academy
New York, NY

Dr. Fiedel has no relevant financial relationships to disclose.

Mary Deering
Senior Vice President, Operations
Physicians Academy
New York, NY

Ms. Deering has no relevant financial relationships to disclose.

Amy E. Klopfenstein, MS
Director, CME & Compliance
Physicians Academy
New York, NY

Ms. Klopfenstein has no relevant financial relationships to disclose.

Marinca Peters
Program Manager
Physicians Academy
New York, NY

Ms. Peters has no relevant financial relationships to disclose.

Review Committee Disclosure:
In accordance with PCN policy, all content is reviewed by external independent peer reviewers for balance, objectivity and commercial bias.  The peer reviewers, staff, and other individuals who control content have no relevant financial relationships to disclose.

Unlabeled Use Declaration:
During their presentation(s), faculty may discuss an unlabeled use or an investigational use not approved for a commercial product. Each faculty member is required to disclose this information to the audience when referring to an unlabeled or investigational use.

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