Cognitive function was improved after continuous positive airway pressure treatment in obstructive sleep apnea syndrome

Abstract

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a sleep disorder with sleep fragmentation, which decreased daytime alertness and induced neurocognitive dysfucntion. The standard treatment of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment on OSA patients has been demonstrated to improve daytime sleepiness but the effects on cognitive functions were poorly understood. Our study took psychomotor vigilance task, flanker task, stroop task and two questionnaires (Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) and Epworth sleepiness scale (ESS)) to measure cognitive function and daytime sleepiness in OSA patients before, after 3-week, and after 3-month standard CPAP treatment. Forty-five OSA patients show significant improvement in executive function with flanker task and Stroop task after 3-weeks and 3-months CPAP treatment as well as improvement of PSQI and ESS. OSA patients improved accuracy rate (AR) as well as decreased omission rate (OR), error rate (ER) and post-error error rate in flanker task after 3 weeks CPAP treatment. Further, three-month CPAP treatment improved incongruent reaction time (RT) in flanker task. The same group improved AR and decreased mean RT, OR, ER, as well as improved congruent and incongruent AR and shorten RT after 3 weeks treatment. Congruent accuracy rate can significant improved after 3 months CPAP used. However, the OSA patients show no significant improvement in vigilance task after 3-week and 3-mpnth CPAP treatment. In conclusion, our study demonstrates that short term and long term CPAP treatment could improve both executive function (improved accuracy rate and shortened reaction time) and sleep quality in OSA patients.