Skip to main content
Key Specialties
Cardiology Diabetology Endocrinology Gastroenterology Geriatrics and Gerontology Gynecology and Obstetrics Hematology Infectious Disease Internal Medicine Nephrology Neurology Oncology Pediatrics Respiratory Medicine Rheumatology Surgery
Congress Coverage
2024 ACC Congress 2023 ESMO Congress 2023 EASD Congress 2023 ERS Congress 2023 ESC Congress
Clinical Collections
Advances in Alzheimer’s

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on medication adherence

LIVE: Thursday 27th June 2024, 18:00-19:30 (CEST)
Join our expert panel to discover why you need to understand the drivers of non-adherence in your patients, and how you can optimize medication adherence in your clinics to drastically improve patient outcomes.
ADVANCED SEARCH
Log in
Top
Sleep and Breathing
Published in: Sleep and Breathing 3/2011

01-09-2011 | Original Article

The effect of nasal continuous positive airway pressure on the symptoms of Gulf War illness

Authors: Mohammad M. Amin, Morris S. Gold, Joan E. Broderick, Avram R. Gold

Published in: Sleep and Breathing | Issue 3/2011

Login to get access

Abstract

Purpose

We performed a pilot study to determine whether nasal continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) alleviates the symptoms of veterans with Gulf War illness (GWI) and sleep disordered breathing (SDB).

Methods

Eighteen male veterans with GWI and SDB recruited by advertisement, participated in a randomized, single-masked, sham-controlled treatment trial. Participants received 3 weeks of treatment during sleep with either therapeutic nasal CPAP or sham nasal CPAP. Using validated questionnaires, pain, fatigue, cognitive function, sleep disturbance, and general health were assessed by self-report before and after treatment. One of the participants assigned to therapeutic CPAP was excluded from the trial before starting treatment, leaving 17 participants.

Results

Compared to the nine sham nasal CPAP recipients, the eight participants receiving therapeutic nasal CPAP experienced improvements in pain (34%; p = 0.0008), fatigue (38%; p = 0.0002), cognitive function (33%; p = 0.004), sleep quality (41%; p = 0.0003), physical health (34%; p = 0.0003), and mental health (16%; p = 0.03).

Conclusions

Our findings in this pilot study suggest that nasal CPAP may greatly improve symptoms in veterans with GWI and SDB.
Literature
1.
Barrett DH, Gray GC, Doebbeling BN, Clauw DJ, Reeves WC (2002) Prevalence of symptoms and symptom-based conditions among Gulf War veterans: current status of research findings. Epidemiol Rev 24(2):218–227PubMedCrossRef
2.
Kang HK, Mahan CM, Lee KY, Magee CA, Murphy FM (2000) Illnesses among United States veterans of the Gulf War: a population-based survey of 30, 000 veterans. J Occup Environ Med 42(5):491–501PubMedCrossRef
3.
Steele L (2000) Prevalence and patterns of Gulf War illness in Kansas veterans: association of symptoms with characteristics of person, place, and time of military service. Am J Epidemiol 152(10):992–1002PubMedCrossRef
4.
Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses (2004). Scientific progress in understanding Gulf War Veterans' illnesses: report and recommendations. Department of Veterans Affairs, p29
5.
Aaron LA, Buchwald D (2001) A review of the evidence for overlap among unexplained clinical conditions. Ann Intern Med 134(9 Pt 2):868–881PubMed
6.
Barsky AJ, Borus JF (1999) Functional somatic syndromes. Ann Intern Med 130(11):910–921PubMed
7.
Chervin RD, Zallek SN, Lin X, Hall JM, Sharma N, Hedger KM (2000) Sleep disordered breathing in patients with cluster headache. Neurology 54(12):2302–2306PubMed
8.
Germanowicz D, Lumertz MS, Martinez D, Margarites AF (2006) Sleep disordered breathing concomitant with fibromyalgia syndrome. J Bras Pneumol 32(4):333–338PubMed
9.
Gold AR, Broderick JE, Amin MM, Gold MS (2009) Inspiratory airflow dynamics during sleep in irritable bowel syndrome: a pilot study. Sleep Breath 13(4):397–407PubMedCrossRef
10.
Gold AR, Dipalo F, Gold MS, Broderick J (2004) Inspiratory airflow dynamics during sleep in female fibromyalgia patients. Sleep 27(3):459–466PubMed
11.
Amin MM, Belisova Z, Hossain S, Gold MS, Broderick JE, Gold AR (2010) Inspiratory airflow dynamics during sleep in Veterans with Gulf War Illness: a controlled study. Sleep Breath doi:10.​1007/​s11325-010-0386-8
12.
Kushida CA, Littner MR, Morgenthaler T, Alessi CA, Bailey D, Coleman J Jr, Friedman L, Hirshkowitz M, Kapen S, Kramer M, Lee-Chiong T, Loube DL, Owens J, Pancer JP, Wise M (2005) Practice parameters for the indications for polysomnography and related procedures: an update for 2005. Sleep 28(4):499–521PubMed
13.
Rechtschaffen A, Kales A (1968) A manual of standardized terminology, techniques and scoring system for sleep stages of human subjects. US Dept of Health, Education and Welfare, Bethesda
14.
American Sleep Disorders Association Atlas Task Force (1992) EEG arousals: scoring rules and examples. Sleep 15(2):173–184
15.
Silber MH, Ancoli-Israel S, Bonnet MH, Chokroverty S, Grigg-Damberger MM, Hirshkowitz M, Kapen S, Keenan SA, Kryger MH, Penzel T, Pressman MR, Iber C (2007) The visual scoring of sleep in adults. J Clin Sleep Med 3(2):121–131PubMed
16.
Hosselet JJ, Norman RG, Ayappa I, Rapoport DM (1998) Detection of flow limitation with a nasal cannula/pressure transducer system. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 157(5 Pt 1):1461–1467PubMed
17.
Krupp LB, LaRocca NG, Muir-Nash J, Steinberg AD (1989) The fatigue severity scale. Application to patients with multiple sclerosis and systemic lupus erythematosus. Arch Neurol 46(10):1121–1123PubMed
18.
Buysse DJ, Reynolds CF 3rd, Monk TH, Berman SR, Kupfer DJ (1989) The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index: a new instrument for psychiatric practice and research. Psychiatry Res 28(2):193–213PubMedCrossRef
19.
Ware J, Kosinski M, Dewey J (2000) How to score version 2 of the SF-36 Health Survey. Quality Metric Incorporated, Lincoln
20.
Montserrat JM, Ferrer M, Hernandez L, Farre R, Vilagut G, Navajas D, Badia JR, Carrasco E, De Pablo J, Ballester E (2001) Effectiveness of CPAP treatment in daytime function in sleep apnea syndrome: a randomized controlled study with an optimized placebo. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 164(4):608–613PubMed
21.
Cohen J (1988) Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences, 2nd edn. Erlbaum, Hillsdale
22.
McNicholas WT (2008) Diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea in adults. Proc Am Thorac Soc 5(2):154–160PubMedCrossRef
23.
Donta ST, Clauw DJ, Engel CC Jr, Guarino P, Peduzzi P, Williams DA, Skinner JS, Barkhuizen A, Taylor T, Kazis LE, Sogg S, Hunt SC, Dougherty CM, Richardson RD, Kunkel C, Rodriguez W, Alicea E, Chiliade P, Ryan M, Gray GC, Lutwick L, Norwood D, Smith S, Everson M, Blackburn W, Martin W, Griffiss JM, Cooper R, Renner E, Schmitt J, McMurtry C, Thakore M, Mori D, Kerns R, Park M, Pullman-Mooar S, Bernstein J, Hershberger P, Salisbury DC, Feussner JR (2003) Cognitive behavioral therapy and aerobic exercise for Gulf War veterans' illnesses: a randomized controlled trial. JAMA 289(11):1396–1404PubMedCrossRef
24.
Mease P, Arnold LM, Bennett R, Boonen A, Buskila D, Carville S, Chappell A, Choy E, Clauw D, Dadabhoy D, Gendreau M, Goldenberg D, Littlejohn G, Martin S, Perera P, Russell IJ, Simon L, Spaeth M, Williams D, Crofford L (2007) Fibromyalgia syndrome. J Rheumatol 34(6):1415–1425PubMed
25.
Burns JW, Crofford LJ, Chervin RD (2008) Sleep stage dynamics in fibromyalgia patients and controls. Sleep Med 9(6):689–696PubMedCrossRef
26.
Hornyak M, Feige B, Voderholzer U, Philipsen A, Riemann D (2007) Polysomnography findings in patients with restless legs syndrome and in healthy controls: a comparative observational study. Sleep 30(7):861–865PubMed
27.
Rotem AY, Sperber AD, Krugliak P, Freidman B, Tal A, Tarasiuk A (2003) Polysomnographic and actigraphic evidence of sleep fragmentation in patients with irritable bowel syndrome. Sleep 26(6):747–752PubMed
28.
Zucconi M, Ferini-Strambi L, Gambini O, Castronovo C, Galli L, Campana A, Scarone S, Smirne S (1996) Structured psychiatric interview and ambulatory sleep monitoring in young psychophysiological insomniacs. J Clin Psychiatry 57(8):364–370PubMed
29.
Voss U (2004) Functions of sleep architecture and the concept of protective fields. Rev Neurosci 15(1):33–46PubMedCrossRef
30.
Agnew HW Jr, Webb WB, Williams RL (1966) The first night effect: an EEG study of sleep. Psychophysiology 2(3):263–266PubMedCrossRef
Metadata
Title
The effect of nasal continuous positive airway pressure on the symptoms of Gulf War illness
Authors
Mohammad M. Amin
Morris S. Gold
Joan E. Broderick
Avram R. Gold
Publication date
01-09-2011
Publisher
Springer-Verlag
Published in
Sleep and Breathing / Issue 3/2011
Print ISSN: 1520-9512
Electronic ISSN: 1522-1709
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11325-010-0406-8

Other articles of this Issue 3/2011

Sleep and Breathing 3/2011 Go to the issue

Original Article

Epworth sleepiness scale in obstructive sleep disordered breathing: the reliability and validity of the Thai version

Original Article

Circadian melatonin profiles during single 24-h shifts in anesthetists

Original Article

Apnea-hypopnea indices and snoring in children diagnosed with ADHD: a matched case-control study

Original Article

Risk of sleep-disordered breathing in Parkinson's disease

Original Article

Quality of life, compliance, sleep and nasopharyngeal side effects during CPAP therapy with and without controlled heated humidification

Original Article

NREM-AHI greater than REM-AHI versus REM-AHI greater than NREM-AHI in patients with obstructive sleep apnea: clinical and polysomnographic features
Live Webinar | 27-06-2024 | 18:00 (CEST)

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on medication adherence

Reserve your place

Live: Thursday 27th June 2024, 18:00-19:30 (CEST)

WHO estimates that half of all patients worldwide are non-adherent to their prescribed medication. The consequences of poor adherence can be catastrophic, on both the individual and population level.

Join our expert panel to discover why you need to understand the drivers of non-adherence in your patients, and how you can optimize medication adherence in your clinics to drastically improve patient outcomes.

Prof. Kevin Dolgin
Prof. Florian Limbourg
Prof. Anoop Chauhan
Developed by: Springer Medicine
Obesity Clinical Trial Summary

At a glance: The STEP trials

Read more

A round-up of the STEP phase 3 clinical trials evaluating semaglutide for weight loss in people with overweight or obesity.

Developed by: Springer Medicine
Image Credits