Prevalance and Clinical Characteristics of Pain in Patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome

Abstract

Objective:It has been shown that pain, depression, and fatigue related to Obstructive Sleep Apnea syndrome (OSAS) results in a significant socioeconomic burden. We aimed to determine the prevalence, demographic, and clinical properties of pain symptoms in OSAS patients.Materials and Methods:We evaluated 84 OSAS patients diagnosed after full-night polysomnography with the Brief Pain Inventory, Beck Depression Rating scale (BDS), Pittsburg Sleep Quality index (PSQI), Epworth Sleepiness scale (ESS), Fatigue Impact scale (FIS), and Fatigue Severity scale (FSS).Results:A total of 84 patients (62 males, 22 females) with a mean age of 54.37±11.03 years were included. Headache in 25 (43.1%), myofascial pain in 22 (37.9%), and other types of pain in 11 patients were defined. ESS, FSS, FIS total, physical, cognitive, and psychosocial scores were found to be significantly higher in patients with pain. The presence of pain did not differ according to the severity of OSAS, and no significant difference was found in any parameters between mild, moderate, and severe OSAS except for minimal O2 saturation. A positive correlation between last week pain severity and BDS scores, a negative correlation between PSQI scores and the decrease in pain rate as a result of the treatment, and a weak positive correlation between FIS-cognitive sub-score and pain intensity scores were found.Conclusion:In our study, excessive daytime sleepiness and the impact and severity of fatigue were found to be higher in patients with pain than in those without pain. The most obvious difference was seen in terms of cognitive, and psychosocial fatigue. Contrary to expectations, it was observed that OSAS severity did not affect pain according to our data.

Keywords

• obstructive sleep apnea syndrome
• pain
• depression
• fatigue