Physicians in all areas of medicine encounter patients who complain of disturbed sleep. The purpose of this course, the 11th in its series, is to provide clinicians with the knowledge needed to recognize and treat major sleep disorders likely to be encountered in their clinical practice.

The course emphasizes a practical based approach to sleep medicine across multiple specialties including primary care medicine, family practice, psychiatry, pediatrics, neurology, geriatrics and clinical psychology. The course will focus on the theories about why we sleep, review the major sleep disorders including chronic insomnia, excessive sleepiness and narcolepsy, parasomnias, and abnormal behaviors at night while highlighting the physiologic basis for sleep and wakefulness.

Attendees will acquire skills needed in the recognition, evaluation and management of the major sleep disorders they are likely to encounter during routine clinical practice. A major goal of the course is to provide practitioners with current updates regarding evaluation strategies and treatment recommendations. Each presentation of the primary sleep disorder will consist of discussion of etiology, pathophysiology, diagnostic strategies and pharmacological and behavioral treatment options.

Target Audience

This course will target clinicians and health care providers who regularly encounter patients with sleep complaints. The course is particularly useful to primary care physicians, internists, family physicians, psychiatrists, neurologists, psychologists, pediatricians, geriatricians, obstetricians and gynecologists, physician assistants, nurse practitioners and any other health care providers who are likely to encounter patients with sleep disturbances. Trainees in the primary care disciplines, family medicine, neurology, psychiatry and sleep medicine will also find the course helpful.