Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index

The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) was developed by Buysse and coworkers at the University of Pittsburgh’s Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic in the late 1980s. The PSQI was borne out of the observation that most patients with psychiatric disorders also have disorders of sleep. The PSQI is a self-rated questionnaire that assesses sleep quality and disturbances over a one month period. The questionnaire has nineteen individual items which are used to generate seven composite scores. The composite scores provide information about subjective sleep quality, sleep latency, sleep duration, habitual sleep efficiency, sleep disturbances, use of sleeping medication, and daytime dysfunction. The scores from the seven components are then summed to yield a single PSQI score. When this single, global PSQI score is greater than five it is nearly 90 percent sensitive and specific for diagnosing “poor” sleepers. The assessment takes about five to ten minutes to administer and score, a scoring process that does not require formal training. As with the other sleep-related scales, the PSQI is best used as a screening tool to identify patients that may require further sleep testing. While the global PSQI score is rather good at identifying the likely presence of sleep disorders, its seven composite scores are less useful clinically. It is unclear whether the PSQI can be used to follow a patient’s response to treatment.

Sleep Disorders

Dyssomnias

Parsomnias