Improving health-related quality of life in patients with obstructive sleep apnea: What are the available options?

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) syndrome is a common and often life-altering sleep-related breathing disorder. It not only adversely affects cardiovascular health, but the quality of life of these patients is also often significantly compromised. They experience excessive daytime sleepiness and poor cognitive, social and exercise performance. Furthermore, they often have marital problems with increased divorce rates, depression, and poor job performance. Our purpose in writing this review is to highlight the various neuropsychiatric domains that are affected in OSA patients and to emphasize that identifying and treating this condition can significantly improve the quality of life of these individuals. In recent years there has been ample evidence supporting the role of treatment for OSA to improve cardiovascular outcomes. We provide similar evidence supporting the treatment of OSA to improve health-related quality of life outcomes for these patients. Surgical, non-surgical and pharmacologic modalities are currently available as effective options for the treatment of OSA, with continuous positive airway pressure therapy appearing to be the most promising.