CPAP and chronic fatigue history

I wanted to run this by our mentor members. I went outside of Kaiser yesterday and paid for a consultation with a noted sleep doctor in my area. As an aside, it was somewhat disappointing in that I went in with printouts of some of my Sleepyhead graphs and questions about how to interpret certain disruptions in my respiration, but the doctor pretty much structured the whole appointment time and content, spending a fair amount of time at 'square one' explaining what AHI means, etc. We never got to many of my questions.

Anyway, near the end of our meeting, she said that there is a subset of patients whose symptoms do not improve even after starting on effective cpap therapy -- patients with a history of chronic fatigue syndrome. I'm wondering if anyone has heard of this before. I had not. Unfortunately the appointment ended before I could get more information about what happens for these patients, and if there is some hope for improvement even in small ways. One condition that falls under the umbrella of chronic fatigue is dysautonomia, which puts me in this less-than-fortunate CPAP outcome group, at least statistically. I'm not ready to assume that there's no room for improvement, and I'm still having tests to rule out other medical issues. And frankly I'm wondering how 'chronic fatigue' would even be defined for research purposes, since I believe it is still considered a syndrome, not a specific diagnosis.

Anyone heard of a link between a chronic fatigue history and failure to improve on cpap?

Lots of things can cause chronic fatigue. It can be a side effect of medication(s). It can be a symptom of conditions other than sleep apnea. If responsible CPAP therapy isn't helping resolve your chronic fatigue, then it is a good idea to have tests done for other potential medical causes. Hypothyroidism, diabetes, and heart disease can all cause chronic fatigue.

Provigil is often Rx to sleep apnea patients to treat chronic fatigue when CPAP therapy alone is not enough.