sleep apnea Many years ago, this was almost unknown. People who suffered from it simply said they “snored.” The rest would not have been so bad. However, information on this matter and advances in diagnostic methods have led to more and more cases being reported. It is now believed that between 4.7% and 7.8% of the Spanish population is over 40 years old. suffers from this. Unfortunately, there is no medical treatment and the only way to cope with it is to sleep with mask which is quite inconvenient. So much so that some patients refuse to use it.
That’s why a discovery just made by a team of scientists at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden is of the greatest interest. They have found that a drug well known for its use against epilepsyHe for the last timeIt can also be an excellent treatment for sleep disorders.
They confirmed this in a clinical trial, the results of which have just been presented in Congress of the European Respiratory Societyheld in Vienna. It will still need to be studied a little more about this. However, the fact that it is already a well-known drug will save bureaucratic red tape in its adoption as a treatment for sleep apnea. Will it be goodbye to uncomfortable sleep masks?
What is sleep apnea?
Before we talk about this antiepileptic drug, it is important to remember what sleep apnea consists of. In a broad sense, it is a disorder in which breathing stops and starts several times all night. They seem to be like snoring that comes on suddenly. But it’s not just snoring. There’s a cessation of breathing.
There are several types. The three most common are obstructive sleep apnea, central sleep apnea, and treatment-emergent central sleep apnea. However, of the three, the first is obviously the most common. This is because the throat muscles relaxobstructing the air flow, resulting in snore, respiratory arrest and severe fatigue the next day.
Sleep apnea can be complicated because it increases the risk of metabolic diseasessuch as type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascularincluding high blood pressure. That’s why it’s important to treat it as soon as possible. And the treatment usually consists of that mask that patients hate so much.
A well-known drug for a different purpose
Sulthiame is an antiepileptic drug widely used in some European countries and Israel. It is often used to treat epilepsy in children. Its mechanism of action is not fully understood. However, it is known to act by inhibiting an enzyme called carbonic anhydrasewhose role is to quickly process carbon dioxide; which, when reacting with water, turns into bicarbonate and protons.
It seems that this mechanism is somehow bypassed seizures. But what if it also had a direct role in the respiratory system? After all, carbon dioxide conversion is part of that system.
That’s the first thing the people responsible for this new study wanted to study. They saw that indeed, by inhibiting carbonic anhydrase, the muscles of the upper respiratory tract are stimulated. Only those that are blocked in sleep apnea. So they thought it could be used to treat the disease.
An essay that meets all standards
To verify this, they conducted double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial. This means that some participants will receive the drug, and others will receive a compound that looks the same but has no effect on the body. This is called a placebo, which is used to check that the results of clinical trials are not a coincidence. There must be a clear distinction between the drug and the placebo. The study is said to be double-blind, since neither the volunteers nor the researchers know who will receive the drug and who will receive the placebo. So there is no room for suggestions. And it is random, because the choice of who will receive each option is completely random.
In total they took part 298 people with obstructive sleep apnea. They were all divided into four groups. 74 people took 100 mg of sultiame per day, 74 – 200 mg per day, 75 – 300 mg per day, and the remaining 75 – placebo. Regardless of which group they were in, polysomnography was performed both before the study and after 4 and 12 weeks. This test is used to measure various parameters during sleep. These include breathing, blood oxygen levels, heart rate, eye movements, and brain and muscle activity.
From Epilepsy to Sleep Apnea
The results of the trial were very revealing. All participants had their breathing pauses during sleep measured, known as AHI3a. Thus, it was seen that the measured value was 17.8% lower in patients taking the lowest dose, 34.8% lower in patients taking the average dose, and 39.9% lower in patients taking the highest dose. In addition, with another type of measurement AHI4The numbers were even better: in the best cases, the reduction in breaks reached 50%. All of them even reported less fatigue during the day compared to those in the placebo group.
As for side effects, They included tingling, headache and nausea. Nothing serious.
There will still be a need to continue to study the reasons for these results and how this antiepileptic drug helps treat sleep apnea. If things continue as they are, patients with this respiratory disease will finally be able to receive a pharmacological treatment that is also well-known in the medical field. Will this be the last goodbye to sleep masks? It is too early to say, but it will certainly be a great option for those who are resistant to wearing them.
Source: Hiper Textual
