article about apnea pill?

catbirdgirl · Post by **catbirdgirl** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 5:55 pm

Has anyone heard of this? Its in clinical trials....

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_a ... 740162.ece

How in heck will it work?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 8:03 pm

Three of the ten patients in the high-dose group had a 50 per cent reduction in symptoms and were considered to have responded completely to treatment.

If these numbers are correct, 30% had a 50% reduction -- not a stellar result. I really like the way they say a 50% reduction is "considered to have responded completely to treatment".

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 8:11 pm

It won't work for osa, they are full of it.

Fredman · Post by **Fredman** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 9:17 pm

“This the first drug therapy that may have an effect without changing sleep architecture,” he said. “A variety of existing drugs reduce the quantity of REM sleep and thus, since OSA is often worse in REM, also reduce symptoms. The magnitude of effect was not enormous so CPAP will remain the first choice but if in larger studies the results are confirmed it may have a place as an adjunctive therapy for milder patients or those who are intolerant of CPAP.”

(emphasis added by me)

Yup, CPAP probably will be here to stay...drug therapy in the future may only be part of the treatment. Personally I would rather rely on the tried and true CPAP especially APAP for me that can adjust and respond to my needs as I sleep.

I don't trust pharmaceutical companies, they hide their money driven motives behind altruistic slogans and mission statements. Sure you care about my condition as long as you can extract money!

lvehko · Post by **lvehko** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 10:07 pm

Anonymous wrote:
Three of the ten patients in the high-dose group had a 50 per cent reduction in symptoms and were considered to have responded completely to treatment.
If these numbers are correct, 30% had a 50% reduction -- not a stellar result. I really like the way they say a 50% reduction is "considered to have responded completely to treatment".

Well, for someone with a very low AHI to begin with, like me (6), a 50% reduction would be a 'cure,' because it would bring me down into the 'normal' range of 'less than 5' for an AHI.

However, this study was *extremely* small -- only 39 patients, and I'm damned if I believe their report that the drug has no side effects. ALL drugs have side effects. The exact language was that the drug worked 'with patients suffering no obvious side effects':

"Doctor, I threw up all night."

"Well, *I* didn't see it! Next!"

alnhwrd · Post by **alnhwrd** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 10:14 pm

This treatment actually is quite effective at reducing the number of events per night. Here is how it works.

You spend lots of money for a bunch of pills that have no actual theraputic value. This makes you so angry that you can't sleep more than a few hours a night for a week. Then, when you don't have money to pay your bills, you are awake for the next two weeks worrying about it and dodging calls from bill collectors. Since you sleeping 50% less, you have 50% less events. Thus your numbers are reduced by the targeted amount over the course of a month and the pills have done what they promised they would. Sounds like successful treatment to me!

Mask

Additional Comments: Started CPAP June 14, 2006, pressure set at 8.0

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