Surgical treatment of the sleep apnea syndrome reduces associated major depression

Prior small and retrospective studies have indicated that obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) disease-related psychiatric morbidity might be reversed by correcting the sleep-related breathing disorder. To evaluate the effect of surgical intervention (uvulopalatopharyngoplasty, UPPP) on associated psychiatric morbidity we prospectively evaluated a large cohort (n = 53) of OSA patients before and after UPPP. Surgical intervention resulted in a significant reduction of depressive disorder (p < .001) in parallel with improvement of the sleep disorder. Our results show that sleep disturbance and reduced daytime alertness may be at least one of the factors behind depressive symptoms in OSA. This study was supported by grants from the Swedish Medical Research Council (Grant No. 9892), the Swedish Heart and Lung Foundation, Inga-Britt and Arne Lundbergs Research Foundation, Skandia Insurance Company, The Swedish Medical Society, and Gothenburg University Research Foundation. Nils-Gunnar Pehrsson and Andreas Hagelin are gratefully acknowledged for skillful statistical assistance.