CPAP and Memory | Itamar Medical

                
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Special Report: CPAP and Memory

A study published in the journal Chest reported that the majority of patients with sleep apnea who were memory-impaired prior to treatment with CPAP demonstrated normal memory performance after three months of optimal CPAP use. The study also showed that memory improvement varied based on CPAP adherence. Patients who used a CPAP device for at least six hours a night were nearly eight times as likely to demonstrate normal memory abilities compared with patients who used CPAP for two or fewer hours a night.

The sleep experts from Brown University Medical School examined the degree to which varying levels of CPAP adherence improved memory in 58 memory-impaired patients with clinically diagnosed sleep apnea. All patients underwent cognitive evaluation involving verbal memory testing prior to initiation of CPAP and at a three-month follow-up visit. Patients were prescribed CPAP machines, and adherence was covertly monitored using internal microprocessors within each device.

After treatment, patients were divided into three groups based on their three-month CPAP adherence: (1) poor users (n=14), patients who averaged fewer than two hours/night of CPAP use; (2) moderate users (n=25), patients who averaged two to six hours/night of CPAP use; and (3) optimal users (n=19), patients who averaged more than six hours/night of CPAP use.

At baseline, all patients were found equally impaired in verbal memory, with the average verbal memory score being approximately two standard deviations (SD) below the mean for all participants. Following three months of CPAP treatment, 21% of poor users, 44% of moderate users, and 68% of optimal users demonstrated normal memory performance.

Compared with Poor Users, Optimal Users of CPAP Were Nearly

Eight Times As Likely to Demonstrate Normal Memory Abilities!

Unfortunately, the scientists noted that moderate use of CPAP may help, but it might not allow patients to reach their full potential recovery where memory is concerned, especially if memory is impaired at baseline. For patients with sleep apnea, the more regularly and consistently they use CPAP, the better off they will be, noted the researchers. However, getting patients to use CPAP at least six hours a night could be a challenge for physicians.

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