If you or someone in your orbit has sleep apnea, here’s the positive news from the European Respiratory Society Congress in Vienna: scientists have discovered possible benefits of a decades-old epilepsy medicine in treating this widespread sleeping disorder. Here’s a breakdown of what this could mean for millions of people.
What Is Sleep Apnea?
Sleep apnoea is a condition wherein the person’s breathing repeatedly stops and starts during sleep. Repeatedly lower levels of oxygen in the blood could lead to a continuum of health problems, including high blood pressure and heart disease. This sleep disorder affects approximately 936 million people worldwide, with extreme cases reaching about 425 million.
The standard treatment for sleep apnoea is the CPAP, or continuous positive airway pressure, machine. It blows air via a mask worn on the face in order to keep the airways open. To many people, however, CPAP machines feel very cumbersome, which they find challenging to stick with over the long term.
Enter Subtheme: A New Hope?
Researchers have now discovered that Sulthiame, a medication previously used to control epilepsy in children, actually offers unexpected benefits for sleep apnea. It works by stimulating the muscles in the upper airway, which may be one reason it can help prevent the airway from collapsing while asleep.
Here is a snapshot of the recent study:
Participants included almost 300 people with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) who did not use CPAP machines.
Method: Over the course of three months, we divided the volunteers into four groups: one received a placebo, and the other three received daily treatments of 100 mg, 200 mg, or 300 mg of subtheme.
Results: Patients on subtheme had fewer breathing disturbances and higher oxygen levels in the blood than in the placebo condition. The highest dosage produced a 39.9% decrease in apneas, though even at the lowest, it was 17.8% better.
What It Means for Patients
Results look promising, especially for patients with CPAP machines. For such patients, subtheme treatment may be a strong alternative. Besides decreasing the number of breathing interruptions, subtheme tended to reduce daytime sleepiness among sleep apnea patients.
Next Steps and Considerations
Despite the lack of promising results, further research is imperative. A larger phase III trial is required to confirm these benefits and check for any long-term effects or side effects, as the study’s findings remain unpublished in a medical journal.
Professor of respiratory and sleep medicine Dr. Sophia Schiza emphasizes the importance of personalised medicine treatment approaches, saying, “The results are promising, but long-term testing is necessary to identify the long-term impact and possible side effects.”
Summary
After all, sulthiame may even bring a new ray of hope for those who are in need but see the CPAP machine as an impracticable solution. While this is not a cure, it does demonstrate the need for a variety of treatments and further research in the challenging fight against sleep apnoea.
If you or a loved one has sleep apnoea, this new avenue of possibilities may be a matter for discussion with your healthcare provider. As research continues, hopefully, there will come a time when this pesky condition shall have better and easier-to-operate treatments.
