Study objectives: We prospectively investigated the effects of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) on long-term cognitive and psychomotor performances, and excessive daytime sleepiness in severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) patients.
Methods: A total of 40 patients were recruited and 23 patients with severe OSA fully completed the study protocol to investigate the effects of CPAP therapy on psychomotor performance at 1, 3, and 6 months and 1 year following initiation of the therapy. Psychomotor CRD-series tests measuring reaction times of light stimulus perception, solving simple arithmetic operations, and complex psychomotor limb coordination, were used in this study. The data collected following CPAP therapy were compared to baseline values prior to the CPAP treatment for each patient.
Results: All of the measured variables improved following CPAP treatment. However, the most pronounced effect was observed in improvement of reaction times to complex psychomotor limb coordination test (p < 0.05). Self-reported evaluation of excessive daytime sleepiness measured by Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) showed significant decrease from 10.0 ± 1.1 before to 3.5 ± 0.5 (p < 0.001), after 1 year on CPAP therapy.
Conclusions: The CPAP therapy improved cognitive and psychomotor performance on CRD-series tests with the most significant improvement observed in complex psychomotor limb coordination of severe OSA patients.
Keywords: Cognitive; Continuous positive airway pressure; Obstructive sleep apnea; Psychomotor; Sleepiness.