Poll: Who believes their depression lifted after going on cp

[dsm]

Seems we are in poll season - just thought of an interesting poll I believe will appeal to many of us (esp those who read & instantly know )

I am asking people who believed they were battling depression and who have been on cpap AT LEAST 3-6 MONTHS to comment as to if they believe their depression has become much more manageable (less of an issue, life is happier, more alive, etc: ) since being on cpap therapy.

DSM

As always, if anyone can see better questions please get in quick & I will consider adding them.

This is an *interesting* topic

[DreamStalker]

Before treatment, I was too zombied out to know whether I was depressed or not. Went to sleep exausted, woke up exhausted, went through the day exhausted, came home exhausted, then started the cycle all over again. After treatement, I'm super alert and able to keep up with current events (local, state, national, and world). So I guess I'm more depressed now than before.

For example, I was listening to NPR yesterday and learned that Wagoner (that jackass CEO that ran GM into the ground) was still on the GM payroll. Remember, Obama fired him a couple of months ago after we tax payers bailed out the company. Seems Wagoner was kept on the payroll until GM's Chapter 11 could be finalized so that he could be given a $20 million severance package. Had he been actually fired (even with a severance package) before the bankruptcy had been finalized, he most likely would have gotten nothing. Just goes to show that despite campaign promises for change, nothing really changes except terminology. Very depressing

[packitin]

deleted

[LinkC]

Just goes to show that despite campaign promises for change, nothing really changes except terminology. Very depressing

No WONDER you're depressed! If you'd only fall into lockstep with the rah-rah koolaid drinkers, you'd quickly see how the savior is making everything hunky-dory...

Or, you could quit sucking air from a hose and sink back into oblivion where you don't have to think for yourself.

Oh, wait...both options are pretty much the same thing.

[DreamStalker]

Just goes to show that despite campaign promises for change, nothing really changes except terminology. Very depressing

No WONDER you're depressed! If you'd only fall into lockstep with the rah-rah koolaid drinkers, you'd quickly see how the savior is making everything hunky-dory...

Or, you could quit sucking air from a hose and sink back into oblivion where you don't have to think for yourself.

Oh, wait...both options are pretty much the same thing.

Yep. Koolaid drinkers ... evangelical hypocrites ... fear mongoring GOP ... oblivious zombies of untreatead OSA ... all the same.

Now I remember why I've been trying to stay away from here.

[TSSleepy]

In my case, I don't think I had "normal depression" when my untreated OSA peaked. I think I had a "similar, but different" psychological malady. I was just too damned tired to cope. I was so physically, mentally, and emotionally fatigued that life just seemed like one, big arduous chore.

I was almost numb. With a tinge of sad. And flashes of desperation. At 41 years old, I felt like my body was preparing to die and I was both scared and almost ready. I was just so damned tired...all the time.

Life is MUCH better now.

I didn't submit an answer on the poll, because I don't think I had clinical depression. But I can say that I had some "depression-like symptoms", due to exhaustion, and that cpap definitely improved them.

[BlackSpinner]

I was almost numb. With a tinge of sad. And flashes of desperation. At 41 years old, I felt like my body was preparing to die and I was both scared and almost ready. I was just so damned tired...all the time.

Yep except that I was 60.
But this doesn't equate to clinical depression - sounds and feels much the same however.

The thing is I see exactly the same difference in me as I saw in my daughter after she went on meds. Energy, focus, happiness.

So does it count?

If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck and swims like a duck - does that mean it is a duck?

[JayC]

I believe that sleep issues and lack of sufficient oxygen nightly for decades have been a factor in the symptoms which have been called and attempted to be treated as clinical depression. I have had some improvement on some meds at different times, not complete.

I have done talk and bahavioral therapies around life experiences which often are associated with clinical depression. Yes, some improvement and understanding. But, my outlook is not the root of the depression.

I have abnormal eeg......is this more from damage of insufficient oxygen nightly, or is what ever is at the root of the abnormalcy in part causing my nightly breathing behavior?

So, what is called depression is for me certainly a combo of things brain electricity/brain chemistry/ nature/nurture/outlook. CPAP treatment is a major contributor of improvement....but CPAP is not and cannot singlehandedly lift my symptoms. But every day I use my CPAP and sleep more reasonable and longer hours, the more I have vitality to deal with the next set of things I need to do to get my life as smooth=running and full as I want.

J

[Paul56]

Several years ago I was diagnosed with PTSD and depression... but sleep apnea had nothing to do with it.

Recovery from depression and PTSD absolutely requires that one getting involved in their own recovery. I went from hanging around the house, staring out the window and never going anywhere except the grocery store for more junk food to... being out of the house more than in, enjoying the world, eating healthy and engaging in life. It was a huge effort at the start just to go out for a walk but gradually as new habits formed I started to feel better.

One of the best bits of advice I received was to get back to basics... visit the doc to ensure nothing medical was wrong, get to the dentist for any dental work, eat healthy, get plenty of rest, get exercise and have some entertainment. Over the long run getting back to basics, having cognitive therapy and being on the "happy" pill for a period of time turned me around. During this period I was sleeping fine... it was not until years later that sleep apnea was diagnosed.

I suspect I had been with undiagnosed sleep apnea for at least a couple of years. Was I depressed? No. Was I tired with seemingly no recovery no matter how much I slept? YES! Being consistently tired did not lead to another bout with depression... likely because I was better equipped to deal with it even though I was constantly tired.

Is there a link between sleep apnea and depression? Likely, but I was not affected.

[DarkSideOfTheMoon]

Oh, TSSleepy, you speak for me!! Being beyond exhausted and knowing that when I looked at others they did not feel like I did. Depressed? Hell, yes! I was dying and no one would/could help me for 25 years. It got much worse as I got older just because most things do get harder. I felt despair and hopelessness and some days wish I were dead instead of being so tired and having no ability to think.
I have been on CPAP for 3 weeks now and I am a NEW PERSON. I have hope and joy. I'm embarrassed to admit that 10 years ago I tried Crystal Meth. I was magically transformed into a state of non sleepiness. It was so wonderful that I knew I could easily become addicted to it. After a few uses, I cut off all ties with people involved in it knowing that it would quickly take away everything I had. I thank God for that! Now I have that same feeling through restful sleep.
I don't love the CPAP itself and it's taking a lot of getting used to. I have face pain and wake up from rain out and leaks and not being able to get in my comfy stomach sleeping position. BUT, I'll take it anyday over the alternative. It's getting a little bit better everyday. I know that my depression was related to OSA and I don't need any studies to confirm or deny it.

Best,
Cathy

[TCL1962]

I have only been on the cpap for a little over a week now but my wife says she can tell a difference already. I will say that I have begun to laugh a bit more and see the good side of things a bit. Far too early to know what will become, but I am very hopeful.

I never really considered myself as depressed, but I probably meet some of the clinical criteria. Like others, I think you just get too tired to care.

[DEXSUZ]

Many CPAP people I know (myself included) agree about how their depression lifted after beginning to get good nights of sleep after YEARS of misery.

One of my favorite stories involves a gal at our church who was approached by her three children one month after starting CPAP. The eldest girl said, "Mom, we really like you now that you've been sleeping better. What drug is in that machine?"

People who've gone through a long life without sleep problems will never understand what a drastic and wonderful change it is when we join them. Even after 10 months on my machine, I still marvel when I think, "Gee, it's 4:30 p.m. and I haven't yawned once all day."

If I had one wish, it would be that my father could have benefited from this instead of spending a lifetime with crappy sleep and smoking himself to death by inhaling nicotine-laden cigarettes he needed to get through his days.

[SuddenlyWornOut45]

A whole bunch of clinical depression symptoms overlap strongly with sleep apnea. Among them include:

1) irritability, untreated OSA sufferers are notorious for being irritable, sometimes severely. Females OSA sufferers may be described as "bitchy" or "psycho bitch." Male OSA sufferers will just be thought of as grumps, cranks, irritable middle aged men with guts, "old"

Ask any psychiatrist worth their salt and they will tell you that irritability is a hallmark of major depression

2) fatigue. Sleep medicine specialists have a fancy twenty dollar word for it. EDS or Excessive Daytime Sleepiness. Psychiatrists will just say, "gee, you look very fatigued, very tired, haggard even."

3) low libido (both sexes) and erectile dysfunction in men, both depression and OSA cause these.

4) Sleep problems, I shall say no more here, but both depression and OSA are associated with non restorative sleep

5) cognition problems, OSA sufferers are famous for having poor memories and "brain fog." So are sufferers of clinical depression.

The one symptom of major depression that is not a symptom of sleep apnea is losing your appetite for no reason and suddenly losing large amounts of weight for no good medical reason. To me, that is one of the things that truly differentiates whether you are suffering from a clinical depression or suffering from sleep apnea with mild to moderate (non clinical) depression. If you still have a good appetite and are not losing weight without trying, its probably not clinical depression.

My psychiatrists call it "sleeping, eating and sex drive problems." Sleep specialists call it EDS, extreme fatigue, competent to drive a motorvehicle and most of them acknowledge that OSA untreated causes mood problems. I have observed a rivalry between some psychiatrists and sleep medicine...I believe some psychiatrists who are totally sold on the psychopharmacology thing, feel somewhat financially threatened at the prospects of treating large numbers of the population for sleep apnea. Not all psychiatrists I believe are like that, but there are some like that. psychiatry has always been concerned about any perceived threat (real or imaginary) to their existence as a branch of medicine. They have been that way for decades with Neurology, there has always been a quiet but observable rivalry between psychiatry and Neurology. And now I believe these is a similar quiet but observable rivalry between psychiatry and sleep medicine.

That being said, there are plenty of psychiatrists who are all for getting their patients screened for sleep apnea and other sleep disorders like RLS and PLMD. Its just an individual thing for the Pdocs.

Eric

[Red Bug]

I have been using my machine for 7 weeks and I can tell a definite reduction in my depression that I've had for 26 years. Maybe it's not connected but I am encouraged for the improvement. I'm hopping that it will continue!!

[SuddenlyWornOut45]

There is a NIMH/NIH sponsored research study going on right now. It focuses on whether or not adding CPAP therapy to those who are afflicted with "treatment resistant depression," referred to as TRD within psychiatry, can help resolve TRD when psychopharmacology has failed. My personal opinion on this is it is a no brainer and I find it hard to believe this is not being studied at more Universities with teaching hospitals. The study is in Canada, but American sponsored. If it were within a hundred miles of me, I'd enroll in it myself.

I already know the answer to the study. You take a person with medication and psychotherapy resistant "depression" who also happens to have untreated OSA. And put them on CPAP therapy with proper type of mask and equipment/RT support. I guarantee they will switch to a non treatment resistant depression in the majority of cases. At the minimum, they will be likely to have less fatigue and better quality sleep...thats a lot right there.

The study is at Queens University in Canada, wherever that is up there. Closest Ive ever been to Canada is Lake Erie, OH.

http://clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT00441636

Eric