Obstructive sleep apnea and risk for late-life depression.

Area of Science:

• Sleep Medicine
• Psychiatry
• Gerontology

Background:

• Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) involves repetitive pharyngeal collapse during sleep.
• Existing research links OSA with ischemia and late-life depression.
• This study investigated if older OSA patients exhibit higher depression rates than younger ones.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine if age influences the prevalence of depression in patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).
• To compare depression rates between older and younger individuals diagnosed with OSA.
• To examine the association between OSA and depression across different age groups.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective chart review of 617 adult patients (age ≥18) at a Sleep Disorders Center.
• Identified patients with depressive disorder (diagnosis or antidepressant treatment) and OSA (Apnea/Hypopnea Index ≥5).
• Compared depression prevalence based on age groups within OSA and nonapnea cohorts.

Main Results:

• No significant difference in depression prevalence was found between OSA and nonapnea groups (40.9% vs 40.3%).
• Depression prevalence did not escalate with age in patients with OSA compared to those without.
• Individuals with OSA had higher BMI and more diagnoses of hypertension, diabetes, and coronary artery disease.

Conclusions:

• Age does not appear to moderate the prevalence of depression in individuals with OSA.
• High rates of depression were observed across all individuals referred for sleep studies, irrespective of OSA diagnosis.
• The findings suggest OSA's association with depression is not age-dependent in this patient population.