√ Is Sleep Apnea And Ptsd Connected

Is Sleep Apnea And Ptsd Connected

5/07/2021

In relation to sleep apnea and PTSD there are plenty of research articles out there connecting them. The study found that about 69 of veterans with PTSD are at a high risk for sleep apnea which is a sleep disorder causing a person to repeatedly stop and start breathing.

Sleep Apnea Secondary To Ptsd Veterans Va Benefits Cck Law

Obstructive Sleep Apnea in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Comorbid With Mood Disorder.

Is sleep apnea and ptsd connected. Some research even suggests that consistent treatment of sleep apnea with CPAP can help ease PTSD symptoms like nightmares and anxiety among military veterans. Relationship Between Sleep Apnea and PTSD Research shows that veterans with PTSD have a higher risk of developing sleep apnea. A secondary condition occurs when a service-connected condition or treatment for that condition causes or aggravates another condition.

Many factors that aggravate PTSD have been shown to aggravate sleep apnea as well such as sleep deprivation chronic stress and hyperarousal. The link between sleep apnea and PTSD in veterans is not clear. There is also a direct correlation regarding the severity of the two conditions insofar as the more severe a veterans PTSD is the more severe their sleep apnea will be.

I did a quick decision search for a phrase used in some of the prominent articles related to an arousal-based mechanism and it returned a large number of results where VBA found a favorable connection of sleep apnea secondary to PTSD. Typically one of the biggest risk factors for sleep apnea is excessive weight but research is needed to determine exactly why PTSD is linked with sleep apnea. Some research suggests that the presence of more severe sleep apnea worsens PTSD symptoms concordantly.

In retrospect a couple of years ago I submitted a DoVA claim with case studies articles linking sleep apnea and PTSD but didnt have a nexus letter via eBenefits requesting sleep apnea as a secondary condition to PTSD also. Significantly Higher Incidence Than in Either Diagnosis Alone. Post-traumatic stress disorder PTSD and sleep apnea have been linked by a number of clinical studies.

As to secondary service connection regarding PTSD the examiner noted that there is association that patients with psychiatric disorders and coincident symptoms suggesting sleep-disordered breathing should be evaluated for sleep apnea but PTSD was not known to cause sleep apnea. Until recently it remained hard to explain why people with. Moreover an ongoing sleep disturbance may play a critical role in the maintenance of PTSD and sleep apnea may be one potential contribution to this persistence.

After my disability claim submission the DoVA VBA scheduled me for two C. Possible factors that may connect the two disorders include combat-related sleep disturbances chronic stress from PTSD and poor. One for sleep apnea and one for PTSD.

Research has shown that having PTSD has a higher chance of developing sleep apnea. Sleep apnea has been noted most often in PTSD both in studies on returning veterans as well as in woman who have suffered sexual trauma. There was a statistically significant increase in the incidence of OSA in male veterans with either BD with comorbid PTSD or MDD with comorbid PTSD.

The VA will reward sleep apnea secondary service-connection to PTSD now but it is not a sure thing. That other condition would be secondarily service-connected. PTSD and sleep apnea have similar stressors in regards to sleep.

This correlation between the two becomes even stronger when the study determined that an increase in the severity of PTSD leads to an increase in the probability of sleep apnea. The connection between the two is directly correlated. However the studys authors say that disrupted sleep and sleep deprivation while in combat paired with veterans physical and psychological stress may play a role.

How Sleep Apnea Affects Your Va Rating Bross Frankel P A