VikingGnome wrote:OSA doesn't cause PTSD, Dissociative Identity Disorder, or Bipolar Illness. As much as you would like to blame OSA on everything, it really doesn't directly cause ANY OTHER condition. It may be correlated or show associations with other disease, but that is not etiology or causation. It is just too pie in the sky to think that if you can treat OSA, then all these other problems disappear. THEY DON"T.
I believe the medical jury is still "out" on if OSA directly causes other conditions and they have not yet determined which came first (chicken or the egg; sleep apnea and psychiatric issues). It has been mentioned in the medical world that it would take years of tracking data about patients before diagnoses (plural) of either disorder and follow them through current diagnoses to validate which came first or what causes what.
Until the studies can prove what OSA does and does not cause, I will continue to learn from the viable information proving intereaction between OSA and many other conditions. That evidence is staggering and accurate. One disorder definitely affects the other.
Is it really pie in the sky to believe that if you can successfully control OSA, then other issues can be relieved, even to the point of the problem disappearing? I don't think so. I think it is possible
in some cases, of course dependent upon severity of the psych disorder in the first place and what other measures have been taken to control OSA and the psych issue, separately.
Here's an interesting link to read, if you have the time.
http://www.annals-general-psychiatry.com/content/4/1/13
Granted, it's a dated link (2005), but chock full of information about the correlation between depression and OSA. I also posted that particular article as it is easy to understand in layman's terms, which will help someone sort through the connections between OSA and depression. There are many other well written medical articles on the correlations between PTSD and BiPolar as well. I didn't think it was necessary to link each one.
