Sleep-disordered breathing in alcoholics.
Sleep apnea and related disorders contribute to disturbed sleep in abstinent alcoholics. In an earlier report from our group, sleep-disordered breathing was common and increased with age in a cohort of 75 abstinent alcoholics. We now report an extension of the previous work that includes studies of an additional 103 abstinent alcoholics undergoing treatment for alcoholism (total sample = 188) and a comparison group of 87 normal subjects. The presence and severity of sleep-disordered breathing was assessed with polysomnography. Among the alcoholics, sleep-disordered breathing (defined as 10 or more apneas plus hypopneas per hour of sleep) was present in 3% of 91 subjects under age 40, 17% of 83 subjects age 40 to 59, and 50% of 14 subjects age 60 or over. Subjects with sleep-disordered breathing were more likely to be male and had more severe sleep disruption and nocturnal hypoxemia and more complaints related to daytime sleepiness than subjects without sleep-disordered breathing. In a multiple linear regression analysis, age and body mass index were significant predictors of the presence of sleep-disordered breathing, whereas smoking history and duration of heavy drinking were not predictors after controlling for the effects of age and body mass index. Our findings suggest that sleep-disordered breathing contributes significantly to sleep disturbance in a substantial proportion of older alcoholics and that symptomatic sleep-disordered breathing increases with age in alcoholics. Sleep-disordered breathing, when combined with existing cardiovascular risk factors, may contribute to adverse health consequences in alcoholics.
University of Michigan Alcohol Research Center, and Department of Neurology, University of Michigan Medical Center, Ann Arbor 48109-0117, USA. maldrich@umich.edu
M S
MS
Aldrich
K J
KJ
Brower
J M
JM
Hall
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000150:complications*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012891:Sleep Apnea Syndromes / Q000150:complications / Q000209:etiology*; D013695:Temperance