The treatment of chronic insomnia disorder, through pharmacotherapy, influences the functional activity in different parts of the patient's brain.
In the methodology, the research used imaging data and clinical variables from 82 patients with chronic insomnia disorder and 54 healthy controls. The patients were treated with either a modified Suanzaoren decoction or estazolam for six weeks. Using a variety of techniques including the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations, Wavelet-ALFF, and fractional ALFF, the spontaneous brain activity of the participants was evaluated. Additionally, machine learning and cross-sample transcriptomic analyses were conducted.
In the discussion of results, it was found that compared to healthy controls, patients with chronic insomnia disorder showed increased functional activity in parts of the brain such as the left precuneus/posterior cingulate cortex, left superior parietal gyrus, and bilateral angular gyrus - and decreased activity in the right inferior parietal gyrus and bilateral middle frontal gyrus. It was further noted that after undergoing pharmacotherapy, patients who were given the modified Suanzaoren decoction exhibited increased activity in the left middle occipital gyrus compared to their initial state. Therefore, it can be suggested that variances in brain activity in areas of the default mode network, frontoparietal network, and visual network may contribute to the mechanisms of pathology and treatment of chronic insomnia disorder.
