Promising drug for sleep disorders – Heilpraxis

Sleep apnea: a drug against depression could help

obstruction Sleep Apnea (OSA) is a sleep disorder, which affects nearly one billion people worldwide. Australian researchers now report that a medicationpreviously used to treat depression gravity which can reduce OSA.

People with obstructive sleep apnea have – usually without realizing it – bad breath while they sleep, pause in breathing and are very sleepy during the day, explains the Institute for the quality and effectiveness of Healthcare (IQWiG) on its portal”gesundheitsinformation.de“. In the long term, this increases the risk of other diseases and can significantly affect the quality of life. Researchers from Australia’s Flinders University now report in the journal “Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine“about a promising drug against OSA.

Significant health effects

According Message from Flinders University, the study authors point out that while a cure for the sleep disorder has not yet been identified, their work opens up new avenues for the development of future drug treatments that target the large number of people who currently use non-tolerated therapies for sleep apnea, such as B. CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machines.

“Obstructive sleep apnea can be a debilitating condition that gets worse at night sleep quality and leads to drowsiness during the day”, says the study’s lead author, Dr. Thomas Altree of Flinders University. Sleep disorder has a significant impact on health and productivity.

“Recent research has suggested that a combination of the drugs reboxetine and oxybutynin, both previously used for unrelated conditions, may be an effective treatment for obstructive sleep apnea, but Side effects may cause”explains the scientist.

“We wanted to see if reboxetine could be effective on its own and to assess exactly how it might be.” breathing changed during sleep.

Reduce the severity of sleep apnea

The team conducted a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomised, multicentre crossover study of 16 people with OSA on staff at the Woolcock Institute in Sydney. they tested monodoses of reboxetine versus a combination of reboxetine and oxybutynin or placebo.

“Our results showed that reboxetine alone heaviness which can reduce sleep apnea”according to Dr. Altree.

According to the information, researchers found that the drug reduced the number of sleep apnea events per hour as well as the contains oxygen improved. Addition of oxybutynin produced no further improvement.

An important milestone for future drug development

according to Dr. Altree, scientists also have a state of the art computer method used to determine how the drug stabilizes breathing during sleep, helping to identify patients who may benefit most from the drug in the future.

The team’s results represent the first evidence that reboxetine alone gravity reduces OSA and provides additional insight into the role of norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors in upper airway stability during sleep, the statement said.

“The current gold standard in the treatment of sleep apnea is to use a CPAP machine while you sleep. But this global approach does not take into account the fact that it different causes for sleep apnea. In addition, many people do not tolerate CPAP long term”said Dr. Altree.

“So it’s important that we find other ways to help people, and this study is an important step for the future.” drug development.” (ad)