Posted by Noa on February 15, 2000, at 20:15:07
In reply to Noa==sleep apnea and the anti-depressant Remeron, posted by Abby on February 15, 2000, at 19:12:42
Abby, thanks. That is interesting. This study, tho, is about "central" sleep apnea, which is apnea caused by a failure of the brain to signal the body to breathe. From what I have read, there is some thought that a lot of this type of apnea comes from a problem in detecting the level of CO2. Usually, once a certain amount of CO2 is in the blood, the brain detects this and signals the breathing apparatus to take another breath.
My type of apnea is "obstructive" apnea, which comes from the airway being blocked, usually when it collapses from low muscle tone, extra body fat, or if the soft palate, etc. are very fleshy.
What is interesting, tho, is that it seems that REM sleep is when a lot of the apnea events of either kind happen. One reason I think an SSRI could reduce apnea of either kind is that ther is a lot of REM sleep in depression, and I would assume, perhaps wrongly, that when taking antidepressants, a depressed person's REM sleep is reduced. Not that reducing REM is a good way to treat apnea, because usually the effect is the other way around. My apnea reduced my REM sleep to 25% of what it should have been, because the apnea episodes kept interrupting the REM stage, as well as stage 4.
Well, probably more than you wanted to know...thanks for the article.
poster:Noa
thread:21661
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000209/msgs/21673.html