OSA effect on thoughts

[SeanCky]

I am curious if OSA can cause effects on your mental health. Such as your thoughts. Can it cause intrusive thoughts?

[Suri123]

Hi SeanCky, how are you doing? Thanks for your reply and the detailed update. I agree you do not have any brain damage due to the fracture episode but reason is different with the OSA where the oxygen supply to brain is hampered causing you the memory problems. Still I would suggest you to get a complete evaluation from a neurophysician and a repeat sleep test and assessment by sleep specialist. Are you using CPAP presently? You are probably under stress, try to relax and update. Take care.

[KatEyes]

I have read numerous accounts of untreated sleep apnea resulting in agitation and aggression, and also of the issues being resolved after therapeutic treatment.  One night in a sleep lab is not necessarily indicative of every night that you sleep. Maybe you need a repeat study. Also, there is such a thing as have a loaner of an auto titrating machine you could use at home for 2 weeks to see if anything more shows up that did not in that one night. With all the apnea in your family, I would push for followup - and push expectantly. You know the dangers of this diagnosis.  By the way, some people have few in the number of apneas, but have serious desats and length of time of the events. Your brain is screaming for help - do what you know you need to do.

[SeanCky]

But there was no brain damage mind you due to the skull fracture

[SeanCky]

I will elaborate. I have been diagnosed with OSA. A 7 during light sleep and a 13 for REM. Since I was not 14 I was not subscribed CPAP but a mouth piece. I could not afford said mouth piece. However since about 6 months ago I had intrusive thoughts of the agressive kind. Mind you this sounds weird but I have never even hit someone in my entire life...not once. I hate violence and thing it's useless. I have never been in a fight and I think the most I have done is punch my brother in the arm. I also am very passive agressive as I hate confrontation and am usually the peace maker. So about 6 months ago I started having the intrusive thoughts of violence which are completely against who I am. I did get diagnosed with OSA. I thought it was strange they happened around the same time. My father has almost fatal apnea as they told him he could have died anytime and my mom has severe while my brother has moderate. I am the only one with mild. My first inclination was OCD. However I am trying to study more on wether or not lack of oxygen to my brain could cause this. I also had a skull fracture when I was 15 on the left front part of my head. It has never cause me problems though and I was 25 1/2 when my problems started(beginning of this year). Please let me know your thoughts on wether my OSA could be causing some thought problems

[Suri123]

Hi SeanCky, how are you doing? Can you give some more details regarding the onset; severity and the medical care you received? Have you got a sleep study done and assessed? Are you using CPAP to help you sleep better? Yes, OSA does have impact on the mental health. "The hypoxia (absence of oxygen supply) through OSA may cause changes in the neurons of the hippocampus and the right frontal cortex in the brain. Research through the use of neuro-imaging revealed evidence of hippocampal atrophy in people suffering from OSA. They found some OSA suffers to have problems in mentally manipulating nonverbal information and executive function". Here is a link to know more - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obstructive_sleep_apnea#Adults.
Use of CPAP improves the condition. Take care and share your thoughts.

[KatEyes]

You kinda left that wide open, so in general, any sleep disorder can affect memory and cognition. I don't know what you mean by intrusive thoughts, but it can cause thinking usually assocoated with depression.