Revolutionary Drug Trial for Sleep Apnea: A Game Changer? | Dr. Lindsay Browning Explains

now could we hope to reduce snoring and the more serious symptoms of of obstructive sleep apnea with a drug with a pill at the moment the so-called CPAP devices which apply continuous positive airway pressure or other oral appliances are typically used but in a clinical trial one epilepsy medication has in fact been found to make a difference uh the drug is called salame I think I'm pronouncing it correctly Lindsay brownie is a sleep expert um Lindsay first of all has a pill ever been found to have an effect on snoring or sleep apnea before uh not yet the the major treatment for snoring sleep apnea is like you said the physical opening and continuous airway pressure to help people breathe by either keeping the the airway open by a mandibular device that sort of makes the lower jaw go forward so that you keep the airway open or with a positive The Continuous pressure of air throughout the night to keep that air Way open and of course sleep apnea is is hugely important it has such devastating effects because if it's untreated then people sleep is fragmented they're continually waking up throughout the night they have daytime fatigue they might fall asleep at the wheel they're so tired as well as the impact it has on their their greater Health like their their risk of heart attacks high blood pressure and weight gain that kind of thing right so we've had a trial on this on this drug what what does it tell us exactly how effective is it well this this trial was on a small group of people and it was a sort of a a very preliminary thing so we can't draw huge um plans for Health Care from it but it is really exciting that there might be a drug treatment available that is going to help with sleepapnea because the trouble with CPAP machines is that some people really don't get on with them either they don't fit properly though they come in the middle of the night or people just find them so uncomfortable that they just don't want to sleep with them and untreated sleep apnea like I said is is really serious so if for those people who can't use CPAP machines there are other Alternatives available and If this drug which is already used for um epilepsy and and children if this drug might be one of several options going forwards more clinical trials to see about the side effects see if it really is as effective as this preliminary study suggests that would be really exciting to help treat more people with deapa more research needed obviously look I was looking up this this drug um quite a serious drug and and one with some potentially serious side effects this has been written up to some extent oh a pill little cure snoring would you take this drug for something like snoring which might one might put in the inconvenience folder as opposed to say sleep apnea which can be a lot more serious sure so um people who have sleep apnea tend to snore but yes light snoring is quite common heavy snoring that really disrupts sleep and leads to sleep happen is something we need need to treat there is there is no way we can draw from this drug that it should be used just for General snoring until more trials have happened until we find out the side effects until we find if it really is as effective as as itest suggests but yes if people are snoring they should look at getting it treated maybe there are allergies causing the snoring maybe it's your sleeping position if you could sleep on your side instead of on your back you might reduce the snoring or if it's a weight issue people who lose weight tend to stop snoring as well so there are lots of things you can do to reduce snor ing before jumping to take some kind of drug and thinking that's your only solution lindsy Browning thank you very much