Nighttime Hypoxemia Is Increased in Abstaining Chronic Alcoholic Men

Abstract

Previously we reported that abstaining chronic alcoholic men demonstrated significantly more nighttime hypoxemia than a control group. Here, we report a replication employing a larger sample of abstaining chronic alcoholics and a more appropriate control group than that used in the previous study. Forty-seven males, 48.4 +/- 1.7 years of age (mean +/- SEM), reporting 24.8 +/- 1.5 years of heavy alcohol use, comprised the abstaining alcohol group. Thirty-five age- and weight-matched males, 50.3 +/- 1.7 years were the control group. The alcohol group had significantly more nighttime oxygen desaturations below 90% than did the control group (16.9 +/- 3.3 vs. 6.2 +/- 1.4, F = 7.8, p less than 0.01), with significantly higher percentages of individuals in the alcohol group manifesting more than 10 or 20 oxygen desaturations below 90%. Regression analyses within the alcohol group revealed that severity of alcohol abuse, but not age, body mass index, days abstinent, or smoking significantly predicted levels of nighttime hypoxemia. These results confirm our original observation of increased nighttime hypoxemia in abstaining chronic alcoholic men and suggest that long-term alcohol abuse may be a risk factor for development of sleep apnea.

Association of Psychiatric Disorders and Sleep Apnea in a Large Cohort

“…Furthermore, case reports indicate that treating sleep apnea may improve psychotic symptoms. 9 An association between sleep apnea and substance and alcohol abuse has been reported; [35][36][37][38][39][40] however, we did not find an increased prevalence of substance abuse in the apnea group (3.32%) compared with the non-apnea group (3.28%). The prevalence for alcohol dependence in VHA beneficiaries is reportedly high (11%); 12 however, in our study, the prevalence was only 5.68% in the general VHA population and 5.53% in subjects with sleepapnea diagnoses.…”

Prevalence of high alcohol and benzodiazepine consumption in sleep apnea patients studied with blood and urine tests

“…Apart from the acute effects of alcohol ingestion, it has been shown that long-term alcohol ingestion may be important in the pathogenesis of sleep apnea, i.e. abstaining alcoholics have an increased frequency of apneas and hypopneas (7,8). In previous studies (9,10) in which questionnaires were used to evaluate the alcohol consumption of OSAS patients, their consumption was found to be no higher than that of the general population.…”

Association of Sleep Disturbance with Chronicity and Remission of Alcohol Dependence: Data from a Population‐Based Prospective Study

“…Typical sleep disturbances include difficulties falling asleep (sleep latency) and a reduction in the total amount of time in bed spent sleeping (sleep efficiency) (Brower, 2001;Landolt and Gillin, 2001). Specific sleep disorders, such as sleep apnea, may also occur at a higher rate among individuals with alcoholism, which also may contribute to sleep disruption (Le Bon et al, 1997;Vitiello et al, 1990). Even after remission of alcoholism, sleep disturbances frequently persist for months to possibly a few years, and sleep patterns may normalize with extended periods of remission (Currie et al, 2003;Drummond et al, 1998;Williams and Rundell, 1981).…”