Targeting a condition suffered by nearly a billion people worldwide, a new study from Flinders University has shown a drug previously used to treat depression can reduce obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) severity.
While not yet identifying a cure, the authors say the study opens up further avenues for the development of future drug treatments targeted at the huge number of people unable to tolerate current sleep apnoea therapies, such as continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines.
“Obstructive sleep apnoea can be a debilitating disease, causing poor quality sleep at night and sleepiness during the day,” says study lead author Dr Thomas Altree from FHRMI: Sleep Health (formerly the Adelaide Institute for Sleep Health).
“It affects millions of Australians and causes major impacts on health and productivity.
“Recent research found a combination of the medicines reboxetine and oxybutynin, which were both previously used for unrelated conditions, could be an effective treatment for obstructive sleep apnoea but can cause side effects.
“We wanted to see if reboxetine on its own could be effective and assess exactly how it changes breathing during sleep.”
The team ran a double blind, placebo controlled, randomised, multicentre cross-over trial with collaborators at the Woolcock Institute in Sydney (following a gold standard for drug trials) with 16 people who had OSA. They tested single doses of reboxetine compared to a combination of reboxetine and oxybutynin or placebo.
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