Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) is a chronic condition characterized by repetitive episodes of upper airway collapse during sleep. Despite standard treatment with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), some patients continue… Click to show full abstract
Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) is a chronic condition characterized by repetitive episodes of upper airway collapse during sleep. Despite standard treatment with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), some patients continue to experience residual excessive daytime sleepiness (rEDS). Pharmacotherapy use for rEDS is low in Europe and some wake-promoting agents are no longer allowed as treatments by the European Medicines Agency. The objective of this study was to characterize the patient demographics, comorbidities, medications, and healthcare resource utilization (HCRU) in a population of OSA patients with and without rEDS after CPAP initiation. The retrospective observational cohort study used the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) AURUM, a primary care database, linked at the patient level to the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) database, which covers secondary care for all of England. The population included 10,746 adult OSA patients with a first record of CPAP treatment during the eligibility period (Jan 1, 2009-Mar 21, 2018). rEDS patients were identified 6 months after initiating CPAP treatment. Among all eligible OSA patients in the AURUM database, 596 (5.6%) had rEDS; 80.5% of rEDS patients were identified using recorded diagnosis code of daytime fatigue, and 21.7% using ESS score ≥11 (13 patients had both measures). A greater percentage of patients had a history of psychiatric (21.5%; p< 0.0001), gastrointestinal (7.7%; p< 0.0001), and neurodegenerative (13.6%; p=0.003) disorders in the rEDS group, compared with the non-rEDS group, while the prevalence of obesity, cardiovascular, and sleep disorders did not significantly differ between groups. Across all patients, rates of prescription for stimulants or modafinil were low during the 12 months prior to CPAP initiation. Patients with rEDS had significantly higher HCRU compared to non-rEDS patients in the first and second years after CPAP initiation. Despite low rates of rEDS identified in this study, the clinical needs of patients with rEDS are significant, as evidenced by the volume of HCRU, low use of pharmacotherapy, and high comorbidity rates, highlighting the need to improve patient care in rEDS. Axsome Therapeutics and Jazz Pharmaceuticals
               
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