title: Effects of continuous positive airway pressure treatment on cognitive functions in patients with severe obstructive sleep apnoea.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSAS) has numerous implications for health and can affect neurocognitive functions in patients.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the neuropsychological functions most affected by OSAS, the factors associated with OSAS severity that are related to those functional limitations, and the effect of therapy with continuous positive airway pressure.
  
  
  METHODS
  The sample consisted of 60 participants: 30 patients diagnosed with OSAS (clinical group) and 30 people without the disorder (control group). Memory, intellectual processes, and attention were analysed with selected subtests from the Luria-Nebraska neuropsychological battery (immediate memory, logical memory, intellectual processes, and attentional control subtests).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Patients obtained significantly lower scores than controls in most of the areas evaluated. Associations were identified between subjective sleep quality and conceptual activity (r=-0.279; P<.05) and attentional control (r=-0.392; P<.01); between oxygen saturation and both immediate memory (r=0.296; P<.05) and thematic drawings (r=0.318; P<.05); and between apnoea-hypopnoea index and immediate memory (r=-0.303; P<.05), logical memory (r=-0.359; P<.01), and thematic drawings (r=-0.302; P<.05). Continuous positive airway pressure was shown to be effective (P=.03) only for improving immediate memory in patients with OSAS.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Patients with severe OSAS showed memory and attentional limitations, associated with poorer quality of sleep and with worst AHI and SaO2 mean. The CPAP use improved memory of the patients evaluated.
authors.affiliation: Unidad del Sueño, Servicio de Neumología, Hospital Universitario Reina Sofía, Córdoba, España; Instituto Maimónides de Investigación Biomédica de Córdoba (IMIBIC), Córdoba, España.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Jurádo-Gámez
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Psicofisiología, Centro de Investigación Mente, Cerebro y Comportamiento (CIMCYC), Facultad de Psicología, Universidad de Granada, Granada, España. Electronic address: ottavia@ugr.es.
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Guglielmi
authors.affiliation: Unidad de Epidemiologia Clínica, Hospital Universitario de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, España.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gude
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Psicofisiología, Centro de Investigación Mente, Cerebro y Comportamiento (CIMCYC), Facultad de Psicología, Universidad de Granada, Granada, España.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Buela-Casal
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003071:Cognition; D045422:Continuous Positive Airway Pressure; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017286:Polysomnography; D020181:Sleep Apnea, Obstructive / Q000150:complications* / Q000628:therapy; D013030:Spain
keywords: Apnea del sueño; Continuous positive airway pressure; Funciones neuropsicológicas; Neuropsychological functions; Obstructive sleep apnoea; Presión positiva continua en la vía aérea