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Therapeutic effects of CPAP on cognitive impairments associated with OSA

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Abstract

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is the most common type of sleep apnea and caused by upper airway obstructions. Clinically, patients with OSA characteristically experience intermittent nocturnal hypoxemia and impaired sleep quality. Cognitive impairments are commonly seen in patients with an OSA diagnosis. A literature search on OSA, cognitive impairments and CPAP was performed with various electronic databases including Medline, EMBASE and Google Scholar. The chosen evidence was limited to human subject studies only, and reports on either central sleep apnea or non-classified sleep apnea were excluded. Available evidence has been systemically reviewed to ascertain what types of cognitive impairments are related to OSA as well as the pathological connections. In addition, effectiveness of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) was analyzed as a standard therapy for improving cognitive performance in patients with OSA. The review contributed in: (1) delineating OSA as a risk factor of cognitive impairments; (2) enumerating cognitive impairments seen in patients with OSA; (3) substantiating the relation between OSA and cognitive impairments from the pathological perspective of AD biomarkers; and (4) revealing duration of CPAP is crucial for its therapeutic effects on improving cognitive performance in patients with OSA.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China

    Ge Wang

  2. School of Health Professions, SHPB 485, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1720 2nd Avenue South, Birmingham, AL, 35294, USA

    Justin R. Goebel, Heather G. Hallman, Tosi M. Gilford & Wei Li

  3. Beijing Haidian Hospital, Beijing, China

    Changhong Li

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  1. Ge Wang
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  2. Justin R. Goebel
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  3. Changhong Li
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  4. Heather G. Hallman
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  5. Tosi M. Gilford
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  6. Wei Li
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All the authors contributed to data analysis and interpretation, draft and critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content.

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Correspondence to Wei Li.

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Wang, G., Goebel, J.R., Li, C. et al. Therapeutic effects of CPAP on cognitive impairments associated with OSA. J Neurol 267, 2823–2828 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00415-019-09381-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00415-019-09381-2

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