Obstructive sleep apnea may directly cause early cognitive decline
2023
King's College London, London, United Kingdom
Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is a multisystem, debilitating, chronic disorder of breathing during sleep, resulting in a relatively consistent pattern of cognitive deficits. More recently, it has been argued that those cognitive deficits, especially in middle-aged patients, may be driven by cardiovascular and metabolic comorbidities, rather than by distinct OSA-processes, such as are for example ensuing nocturnal intermittent hypoxaemia, oxidative stress, neuroinflammation, and sleep fragmentation. Here, the researchers analysed the cognitive performance in a group of 27 middle-aged male patients with untreated OSA, who had no concomitant comorbidities, compared with seven matched controls. The patient cohort exhibited poorer executive-functioning, visuospatial memory, and deficits in vigilance sustained attention, psychomotor and impulse control. Effects on social cognition were also reported in this group of male, middle-aged OSA patients. These findings suggest that distinct, OSA-driven processes may be sufficient for cognitive changes to occur as early as in middle age, in otherwise healthy individuals.
Distinct cognitive changes in male patients with obstructive sleep apnoea without co-morbidities
Ivana Rosenzweig
Added on: 05-02-2023
[1] https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsle.2023.1097946/full[2] https://blog.frontiersin.org/2023/04/06/frontiers-sleep-obstructive-sleep-apnea-cognitive-decline/
