SynthesisClinical psychology review2023
Nightmares and psychiatric symptoms: A systematic review of longitudinal, experimental, and clinical trial studies.
Synthesis in Clinical psychology review, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 48 citations in OpenAlex.
- Bad dream, nightmares and psychopathology: a systematic review.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Pooled it
- Disturbing dreams and dementia incidence across diverse cohort studies: A COSMIC collaboration study.Psychiatry and clinical neurosciences · 2026Article
- Enhancing primary care detection and referral of nightmare disorder: a quality improvement initiative : Journal name: Sleep and Breathing.Sleep & breathing = Schlaf & Atmung · 2026Article
- Nightmare frequency mediates the association between childhood trauma and suicidal ideation among youth: is it sex-specific?European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2026Article
- Enhancing identification and diagnosis of nightmare disorder in active duty patients at a sleep disorders center: A quality improvement initiative.Journal of clinical sleep medicine : JCSM : official publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine · 2026Article
- Sleepless in Gaza: War-related trauma and the neurobiological toll on sleep.Global mental health (Cambridge, England) · 2026Article
- DARC-NESS: a mastery-based cognitive-behavioral model for treating chronic nightmares in youth.Frontiers in sleep · 2026Article
- Spanish Translation and Psychometric Evidence of the Nightmare Disorder Index (NDI) in Adults from the General Population.European journal of investigation in health, psychology and education · 2025Article
- Associations between Nightmare Frequency, Nightmare Distress, and Psychopathological Problems among Chinese College Students: a Population-based Survey.The Psychiatric quarterly · 2025Article
- Evaluating the Relationship Between Emotion Regulation, Mood and Distressing Dreams Using Daily Sleep Diary Reports in Trauma Survivors.Journal of sleep research · 2025Article
- After the Shock: Impact of Ectopic Pregnancy on Subsequent Fertility and Parenthood.Biomedicines · 2025Review
- Nightmares and self-injurious thoughts among clinically acute adolescents: Examining negative affect as a potential mechanism.Journal of affective disorders · 2025Article
- Nightmare frequency and nightmare distress in psychiatric inpatients.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2025Article
- Trauma and sleep disruption in Gaza: a qualitative content analysis of war-related effects.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- Nightmare distress mediated the correlation between autobiographical memory specificity and depression.PloS one · 2025Article
- The Holland Sleep Disorders Questionnaire: Factorial structure and measurement invariance in a psychiatric sample relative to the general population.International journal of methods in psychiatric research · 2024Article
- Understanding and Treating Nightmares: A Comprehensive Review of Psychosocial Strategies for Adults and Children.Cureus · 2024Review
- Trajectory of adolescents' nightmares in relation to depression and post-traumatic stress disorder in young adulthood: a 10-year cohort of Chinese Wenchuan earthquake survivors.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2024Article
- Associations between disturbed sleep and attenuated psychotic experiences in people at clinical high risk for psychosis.Psychological medicine · 2024Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Nightmares occur across a wide range of psychiatric disorders, but outside of PTSD presentations are infrequently considered a treatment priority. We aimed to assess evidence for a contributory causal role of nightmares to the occurrence of psychiatric disorders, and vice versa. A systematic review was conducted of longitudinal, experimental, and clinical trial studies. Twenty-four longitudinal, sixteen trials, and no experimental studies were identified. Methodological shortcomings were common, especially the use of single-item nightmare assessment. Thirty-five studies assessed the path from nightmares to psychiatric symptoms. Depression (n = 10 studies), PTSD (n = 10) and anxiety (n = 5) were the most commonly assessed outcomes in trials. Most were not designed to assess the effect of nightmare treatment on psychiatric symptoms. Treating nightmares led to moderate reductions in PTSD and depression, small to moderate reductions in anxiety, and potentially moderate reductions in paranoia. Nightmares increased the risk of later suicide outcomes (n = 10), but two small pilot trials indicated that treating nightmares might potentially prevent recovery of suicidal ideation. PTSD treatment led to large reductions in trauma-related nightmares (n = 3). The limited literature suggests that treating nightmares may be one route to lessening threat-based disorders in particular, suggestive of a causal relationship. Overall, however, nightmares in most disorders are greatly understudied.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.