Can medication make sleep apnea worse?

I was diagnosed with sleep apnea in November. I've been using an oral appliance, and while I now realize that it was probably inadequate, I was muddling through without crippling fatigue or anything like that.

About 2 months ago, I was given medicine for high blood pressure. In retrospect, again, my oral appliance wasn't cutting it, and I now know that I'll need to use CPAP. My blood pressure is a bit high (around 130/80); I'm hoping the CPAP will help with that. But I think the diagnosis was incorrect. I was given something called Diovan, which is an ARB, and very strong. After taking it, I gradually went into a tailspin. I lost energy and began having shortness of breath. I've since gone off the medication, but I'm still incredibly fatigued. I still have have shortness of breath (which may be from sleep deprivation or anxiety) and get tired a couple of hours after I wake up. I'm having trouble with my job and family responsibilities. I've never experienced anything like this before in my life.

The problems I'm having began when I started taking the medication. But I don't understand how that could affect sleep apnea. I've seen doctors but haven't really gotten any help. Aside from the sleep apnea and slightly elevated blood pressure, I'm in good health. I am not overweight, don't smoke, and was until recently exercising every day.

Any insights anyone could provide would be most welcome.

Yep, drugs affect apnea. So do diet, exercise, attitude, age, and many other factors. I'm not familiar with the medication you took, but all meds have effects separate from whatever they're supposed to be fixing; these are commonly called "side effects," and that term has always seemed inaccurate to me. They're just effects, and people don't always tolerate them the same way. Clearly, the medication you were on had effects that were unacceptable to you, so it doesn't matter if it brought your blood pressure under control. Generally, effective cpap therapy results in improved blood pressure. Good luck!

How long were you on the Diovan and how long ago did you stop taking it? Diovan can cause high blood potassium levels. A high blood potassium can cause fatigue and worst case scenario, arrythmia. You should have a blood test to check your potassium level.
Your blood pressure was really only borderline high. I wonder why your doctor would prescribe something like Diovan for it? There are other B/P meds better suited to treating borderline high B/P.
If your potassium is high you need to be watching what you eat and depending on ow high it is maybe even a med to reduce the level. Please seriously consider calling your doctor about this.

maggie22561 wrote:How long were you on the Diovan and how long ago did you stop taking it? Diovan can cause high blood potassium levels. A high blood potassium can cause fatigue and worst case scenario, arrythmia. You should have a blood test to check your potassium level.
Your blood pressure was really only borderline high. I wonder why your doctor would prescribe something like Diovan for it? There are other B/P meds better suited to treating borderline high B/P.
If your potassium is high you need to be watching what you eat and depending on ow high it is maybe even a med to reduce the level. Please seriously consider calling your doctor about this.

Hi, Maggie,

Thanks for your reply; you brought up a very good point. I actually knew nothing about blood pressure medication when I first given the Diovan. I asked the doctor what I could do about high blood pressure, and she told me to eat a low salt diet. So I had very little salt, a lot of bananas, and the Diovan. You can guess the result.

After a while, I learned about Diovan and potassium levels, and I started increasing my salt intake. This helped a lot. I thought I had solved the problem, but it's been coming back off and on.

I also went to the doctor, but she told me to stay on the blood pressure medication. Actually, for insurance reasons, I was switched to losartum potassium. But I really didn't like the way I felt on either medication, so I stopped taking it.

It's now been about 2 weeks since I stopped. It may be that that's just not enough time for it to get out of my system. But my sleep is clearly much worse (more waking up in the middle of the night, less restful, more exhaustion), and I'm just not thinking clearly enough to tell whether it's because of the medication or my sleep apnea getting worse. My original sleep apnea diagnosis was mild to moderate (15.9 API).

BTW, to answer your question about why Diovan, I had been lifting weights before seeing the doctor, and my blood pressure was artificially elevated.

A simple old fashioned diuretic works best for your levels. Your doctor shot a mosquito with an elephant gun.

Exactly! I take 25mg of HCTZ, a simple diuretic. It, too, can deplete potassium so I usually eat a banana every day. That doc should be shot for putting someone on such a powerful drug for borderline hypertension! Probably the drug of the week from the visiting pharm rep!

Hmmm. I'm not sure your sleep problems are related necessarily to Diovan. I do think taking the Diovan has caused you some problems, but I think the apnea is an issue unrelated. What sort of oral appliance are you using to treat your apnea, Did you have a sleep study that verified your mild/ moderate apnea?

maggie22561 wrote:Hmmm. I'm not sure your sleep problems are related necessarily to Diovan. I do think taking the Diovan has caused you some problems, but I think the apnea is an issue unrelated. What sort of oral appliance are you using to treat your apnea, Did you have a sleep study that verified your mild/ moderate apnea?

I do have sleep problems which are independent of Diovan. I had a sleep study which said my AHI was 15.9. I have been using a SomnoDent oral appliance. The dentist I've been using was referred to me by my sleep doctor and seems to be a specialist. Things were not great with the oral appliance, but it was definitely an improvement over nothing.

But after taking Diovan, everything became much, much worse.

I'm trying to look on the bright side: if this experience becomes a catalyst for me to better manage my sleep apnea, it will have not been a total loss.

Perhaps the Somnodent is no longer working? I do sympathize with you. I was diagnosed with severe sleep apnea and have been using a CPAP for nearly a month, so the memory of sleep deprivation and what it does to you is very fresh in my mind. I have noticed such a huge improvement now in how I feel daily already.
I hope you will find the answers you need and soon.

maggie22561 wrote:Hmmm. I'm not sure your sleep problems are related necessarily to Diovan. I do think taking the Diovan has caused you some problems, but I think the apnea is an issue unrelated. What sort of oral appliance are you using to treat your apnea, Did you have a sleep study that verified your mild/ moderate apnea?

More importantly--were you re-titrated AFTER the oral appliance was established? If not, you have NO IDEA if it even made a small dent in your apnea. It is entirely possible that you are still experiencing an AHI of 15 WITH the oral appliance. This must be tested to verify it is working!

You may have had other independent factors going on that worsened the OSA, such as sleep position, heartburn etc etc that may have worsened the OSA coincidentally.

Or, the medicaton may have a long half life and is still in your system! The patient insert should give you half life information so you can determine if it is still present. Or you may be able to find the information on the web.

Or, another possibility is that this prescription drug had some undocumented affect on sleep architecture--like preventing REM or Slow wave sleep or something of that nature--in which case you may now have a sleep debt you need to work off--sleep an extra hour per night for a few weeks and see if that starts to resolve the symptoms. Most of us are already sleep deprived--this could have been the straw that broke the camel's back.

You learned a valuable lesson that many of us have learned the hard way as well. Research thoroughly any drug a doctor prescribes before you put it in your mouth. You have to protect yourself from these kinds of medical mistakes.

Fire your doctor!

I agree with some of the other statements.
I doubt that the Diovan has any (adverse) effect on your OSA. I took it for about a year between early 2005 to early 2006 because Lisinopril gave me a horrible cough. After CPAP usage brought my blood pressure down, I quit taking it.

http://www.drugs.com/diovan.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valsartan

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001001


Den

You know there are people who would kill to have a blood pressure of 130/80. That's not bad.

It's well known that sleep medications, sedatives and muscle relaxants can make sleep apnea worse. My apnea got much worse after 2 years of steady sleeping pill use and improved considerably when I quit taking sleeping medications. I don't know about other types of meds.