Biomedical Research

Sleep disordered breathing is a condition when upper airway has been obstructed and sleep pattern is not in normal cycles. It comprises of snoring, upper airway resistance syndrome, central sleep apnea and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). The most commonly used treatment for OSA is Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) [1]. Epilepsy like any other chronic disease has significant impact on the quality of life. Seizure frequency will influence quality of life in epilepsy patients and it can be influenced by disordered sleep[2]. This is a crosssectional study done to measure quality of life for epileptic patients with obstructive sleep apnea and outcome of treatment of OSA. This study enrolled 180 epileptic patients who were seen in Neurology Clinic of the Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia. Each patient was administered two set of questionnaires; Epworth Sleepiness Scales (ESS) and Quality of Life in Epilepsy patients (QOLIE-31). Quality of life in epilepsy patients was assessed using Malay version of QOLIE-31 [3]Patients with score of ESS more than 10 went for overnight Polysomnography test. Patients who were positive for OSA by overnight Polysomnography were treated with CPAP. After that patients were assessed again with QOLIE-31 questionnaires. In our study, the frequency of OSA was positively associated with age. Seizure worry was significantly more in epilepsy patients with OSA compared to those without OSA.( p value < 0.005) and quality of life scores were lower in this group with high sezure worry. There were significant differences (, p value < 0.005) in medication effects, cognitive functioning, overall quality of life and seizure worry. We conclude that patients with epilepsy and OSA may have frequently seizure attack or severe seizure which influences their QoL and this situation improved with treatment of OSA using CPAP

Author(s): Siti Norhajah Hashim, Baharuddin Abdullah, Jafri Malin Abdullah, John Tharakan, Yusri Musa
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