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Sleep apnea

Treatment with protriptyline

Departments of Medicine (Neurology, Cardiology), Psychiatry, and Otolaryngology, and the Ohio State University Sleep Disorders Evaluation Center, Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus, Ohio.

Fourteen patients with an average of more than 60 episodes of upper airway obstruction during night sleep were treated with a nonsedating tricyclic antidepressant, protriptyline. Frequency and duration of recorded apneas decreased in 11 cases, and satisfactory control of sleep apnea was maintained with medical therapy alone in 8 of these 11 patients for 7 to 15 months. Potential adverse effects of protriptyline, particularly on the cardiovascular system, limit its use in this illness. These results indicate the possibility of pharmacologic reversal of sleep-induced incoordination of the upper airway.

Address reprint requests to Dr. Clark, Ohio State University Sleep Disorders Evaluation Center, 473 West Twelfth Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210.

This investigation was supported in part by The General Clinical Research Center, Grant No. RR-34, Division of Research Resources, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland.

Accepted for publication February 13, 1979.

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