SynthesisSleep & breathing = Schlaf & Atmung2020
Efficacy of Antidepressants in the Treatment of Obstructive Sleep Apnea Compared to Placebo. A Systematic Review with Meta-Analyses.
Synthesis in Sleep & breathing = Schlaf & Atmung, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 18 citations in OpenAlex.
- Leptin alleviates obesity hypoventilationbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Obstructive Sleep Apneas and Cardiovascular Diseases.Clocks & sleep · 2026Review
- Leptin signaling in the dorsomedial hypothalamus couples breathing and metabolism in obesity.Cell reports · 2023Article
- Solriamfetol enhances wakefulness and improves cognition and anxiety in a murine model of OSA.Sleep medicine · 2023Article
- Thyrotropin-releasing hormone analog as a stable upper airway-preferring respiratory stimulant with arousal properties.Journal of applied physiology (Bethesda, Md. : 1985) · 2022Article
- A Review of a Recent Meta-Analysis Study on Obstructive Sleep Apnea.Journal of rhinology : official journal of the Korean Rhinologic Society · 2022Review
- Bidirectional relationships of comorbidity with obstructive sleep apnoea.European respiratory review : an official journal of the European Respiratory Society · 2022Review
- Off-label Uses of Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs).Current neuropharmacology · 2022Review
- Comorbid Major Depressive Disorder and Obstructive Sleep Apnea.Case reports in psychiatry · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeTo establish the efficacy of oral antidepressants compared to placebo in improving obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) as measured on a polysomnography study. Secondary outcomes included self-reported sleepiness.
methodsAuthors identified prospective randomized placebo-controlled studies from MEDLINE through PubMed, Web of Science, the Cochrane Library and EMBASE up to February 2019 in English language. Antidepressants included tricyclic antidepressants (TCA), tetracyclic antidepressants (TeCA), selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI), and serotonin receptor modulators (SRM). Studies were assessed for inclusion and exclusion criteria, as well as risk of bias based on the Cochrane handbook.
resultsThe initial search yielded 254 unduplicated references ultimately reduced to 8 relevant studies, in which 198 OSA participants were included. Patients with an average baseline AHI of 26.7 events/hour taking 15-45mg mirtazapine had a statistically significant reduction in apnea-hypopnea index compared to placebo by -10.5 events/hour (p<0.001), apnea index by -3.6 events/hour (p=0.001) and hypopnea index by -5.9 events/hour (p=0.037). In one study, patients taking 100mg trazodone 1 night improved significantly in AHI compared to placebo group (p<0.001). Arousal index, sleepiness, and sleep efficiency were not statistically significantly reduced with any antidepressant medication compared to placebo (p>0.05).
conclusionsOf the five antidepressant medications studied, only mirtazapine and trazadone showed a statistically significant reduction in AHI in the treated groups but not in sleepiness scale nor an increase in sleep efficiency. In this review, the total sample sizes were small, adverse side effects of some of the antidepressant medications were clinically significant, overall risk of bias of the studies was high or unclear, and overall quality of the evidence was low. Based on the evidence available at this time, we cannot recommend the antidepressants studied in the treatment of OSA.
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Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.