Surgical treatment of the sleep apnea syndrome reduces associated major depression

Prior small and retrospective studies have indicated that obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) disease-related psychiatric morbidity might be reversed by correcting the sleep-related breathing disorder. To evaluate the effect of surgical intervention (uvulopalatopharyngoplasty, UPPP) on associated psychiatric morbidity we prospectively evaluated a large cohort (n = 53) of OSA patients before and after UPPP. Surgical intervention resulted in a significant reduction of depressive disorder (p < .001) in parallel with improvement of the sleep disorder. Our results show that sleep disturbance and reduced daytime alertness may be at least one of the factors behind depressive symptoms in OSA.