New Drug Treatment for Sleep Apnea

An antidepressant called mirtazapine has been shown to significantly reduce the symptoms of sleep apnea and may represent a promising new treatment for the disorder.

In a trial of 12 patients ranging between the ages of 20 and 70, the patients received one of two dosages of mirtazapine or a placebo an hour before bedtime. They were monitored throughout the night after each of three seven-day treatment periods. The drug reduced the number of times sleep breathing stopped or slowed during sleep by 50% and reduced the number of times sleep was disrupted by 28%. All 12 patients showed improvement. Mirtazapine blocks the activity of serotonin, which is involved in regulating mood, emotion, appetite, and sleep. Currently, sleep apnea is treated with mechanical devices, most often masks or nasal prongs, that maintain a continuous positive airway pressure (c-pap) but are uncomfortable and difficult to use long term.

"The drug provided the largest benefit and the most consistent improvement of any pharmaceutical therapy tested in controlled studies to date,” said co-investigator David Carley, director of research at the Center for Sleep and Ventilatory Disorders at the University of Illinois at Chicago (USA), where the study was conducted.

The clinical trial followed years of laboratory tests of several classes of medications on a strain of rats that exhibited sleep apnea similar to the human disorder. Mirtazapine has been approved only for the treatment of depression.




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U. of Illinois at Chicago