CPAPtalk.com

Okay--here's the real link:

http://www.pur-sleep.com/uploads/Berlin ... nnaire.pdf

Babette,

You go , girl! If you have enough energy to be kept "up late by a charming young man", you are in better shape than I am!!!

Bev

No. I'm not. Hence my need for sleep today.
B.

Or, even better, Bret's posts in the "Our Collected Wisdom" section, which I just found:

W W W DOT cpaptalk.com/cpaptalk-articles/sleep-apnea-prevalence-sleeping-enemy.html

Cheers,
B.

Everyone said what I would have posted, but I second all of it. I was diagnosed with a progression of mental health diagnosis and got worse and worse with each medication they added. All of them were almost certainly making my sleep worse, by directly disrupting sleep architecture or relaxing my airway. So I would add: if they have tried several medications but none help.

Also, the fact that I was sleeping 12-15 hours a night and was still super tired should have been a give away.

R

so

persistent fatigue
morning headaches
non responsive to medication depression
in another location I saw paranoia and hallucinations
snoring (of course)

what other mental health symptoms?


I'm open to suggestions for narcolepsy and RLS too

CatBirdGirl,

You are undertaking something very important.

1. According to my ex talk therapist, 50% of his clients have sleep disorders (yet he doesn't routinely screen them and refer them for PSGs - just gets them to talk!:x).
2. One of my sleep doctors recently stated on a local TV health show, that more than 50% of people coming to the sleep lab have previously been prescribed antidepressants.

So your job is very easy (and extremely important). I firmly believe the Berlin questionnaire should be administered to anyone who exhibits any mental health symptom, signs of fatigue, or indications of lack of sleep.

My bet is more than 50% will test positive and as SleepGuy says 90% of these will score postive on a PSG.

The Berlin questionnaire is cheap, easy and quick to administer.

BTW, I agree with PanHandler, an eleventh question should be added about nocturia. More than one time per night score 1. Three or more times per night score 2.

Keep up the good work.

Roost

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/depres ... ep/MY00054

That's not a bad short article in today's Streaming CPAP News.

Fatigue, hypertension.......and chronic snoring (rock the walls snoring), as well as family history of OSA caused my Dr to send me for my sleep study. Although I'm in good physical health, exercise, eat well, my blood pressure was not improving in my early 30's. Not even out of my 30's yet, and my new primary care sent me for a sleep study, convinced this was the issue. Diagnosed with severe sleep apnea, and after less then 3 months of cpap treatment, my blood pressure is nearing back to normal, and I'm regaining a sense of energy I havent had in the last decade due to sleep deprivation. Both my father and brother have OSA, so when I was diagnosed, it felt like one of those 'should've had a V8' moment, so obvious, but missed by my general physicians through the years. Hope our feedback can help someone else.

PS..and, chronic sore throat from all that snoring

_________________

CPAPopedia Keywords Contained In This Post (Click For Definition): CPAP

Memory and attentional problems, even without overt sleepiness. Work product still of good quality but taking longer to perform.

Good on ya, Catbird! Good project.

You want to alert people to the fact they may have OSA?

Just be gentle!

I went into about 10 years denial after listening to just such a talk alerting us about OSA. I only recently remembered this conversation.

Me "I think I may have have Obstructive Sleep Apnoea"

Friend " oh, that means you have to wear a huge (gestures with opened hand grasping face) mask on your face when you go to bed

Me "Oh no I'm not doing that" and shut straight down into denial for YEARS.

Forgot the talk, forgot the book I'd just read (Phantom in the Night I think, which I had ordered specially from the library and travelled to a different library to pick up) forgot the term, forgot everything.

Symptoms...

after years and years...complete and utter exhaustion. Completely unable to enjoy anything, everything seemed an effort (and was an effort). Body aches and pains, terrible cramps, especially in my chest and back and sides.

Falling asleep over my mid morning cup of tea and not waking up till I spilt it, or mid afternoon, whichever came first.

Craving for carbs (kept me awake).

Put it all down to "getting older" and my concurrent depression (which has not been alleviated by OSA treatment.

Di

Waking up in the night breathless. Not unpleasantly so, just panting very fast and then falling back to sleep again. Actually it felt quite good, guess the body was pleased to get some oxygen.

Lots of dreams about being underwater.

we're the phone people. we can't administer the questionaire. we're not their therapists!

however, sometimes health issues come up in the 5-10 min phone interview, and I'm trying to get our phone counselors to have enough sleep literacy to spot it if someone mentions it. I've spotted it because I've got it. I've also spotted narcolepsy, DSPS, and RLS. not to mention environmental illness/MCS. I don't have all of those but I am well read.

we aren't their clinicians... I hear ya about the Berlin Questionaire, but that's not what I'm doing, it doesn't fit.

rooster that article's perfect! thanks

catbirdgirl wrote:we're the phone people. we can't administer the questionaire. we're not their therapists!

however, sometimes health issues come up in the 5-10 min phone interview, and I'm trying to get our phone counselors to have enough sleep literacy to spot it if someone mentions it. I've spotted it because I've got it. I've also spotted narcolepsy, DSPS, and RLS. not to mention environmental illness/MCS. I don't have all of those but I am well read.

we aren't their clinicians... I hear ya about the Berlin Questionaire, but that's not what I'm doing, it doesn't fit.

Don't mean to beat a dead horse, but you don't need to be in a clinician or therapist role to go through the Berlin Questionnaire. Do you snore? Do you feel drowsy when you drive. Do you have high blood pressure. They're screening questions only. Depending on how they score you can recommend they see their doctor about OSA. I still think it's a very good fit. It would take literally 2-3 minutes.

Good luck.