Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) patients with symptoms of excessive sleepiness have the greatest risk of depression, says a new study, and should be screened for this condition.
Dr. Stacey Ishman and a team of researchers at Johns Hopkins University evaluated 56 consecutive patients with OSA aged 27-74 who visited a clinic for treatment and compared them with 51 patients who did not have OSA.
Overall, significantly more OSA patients met the criteria for depression (29%) than those who did not have OSA (8%). The severity of their sleep apnea was a good predictor of the severity of their depression symptoms, however, their depression symptoms did not predict the severity of the sleep apnea.
The patients' scores on a scale measuring the severity of their depression symptoms correlated with the scores on a sleepiness scale as well, but their sleepiness scores did not correlate with the severity of their sleep apnea. However, previous studies indicate that patients with severe OSA do not necessarily report subjective sleepiness, noted Dr. Ishman.
The results were limited by the small sample size and the overlap between OSA and depressive symptoms, said Ishman, but they do suggest that OSA patients with excessive sleepiness may in particular benefit from being screened for depression.
Their findings were presented at the Triological Society Combined Sections Meeting.
There is a critical point missing in this article. Interpreting the numbers, the study finds 78% of those with depression have sleep apnea.
So what is missing is screening of people with depression for sleep apnea. In fact, I see statistics that say 40 million people in the U.S. have sleep apnea and 85% are undiagnosed. So, screening for sleep apnea should become a part of every routine physical exam and certainly before anyone is referred to a psychiatrist or psychotherapist they should be screened for sleep apnea.
Thank you William for making that comment! You are 100% right on!
All to often the medical community attempts to treat depression, high blood pressure, cardiac arrythmias, diabetes, and obesity with drugs and more drugs. When in fact if these patients were screened for obstructive sleep apnea many of these diseases could be managed more effectively with fewer drugs.
hey i was wondering if teens at school are discriminated against because they have depression. please reach me at rayrayrosy14@gmail.com. thanks for the information.
I nearly fell asleep behind the wheel the other day but i had my anti sleep alarm on and it sounded so i pulled over and had a break. They are not that expensive and i got mine from NO NAP