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Analysis of the Prevalence and Characteristics of Concomitant Sleep and Headache Disorders, and the Efficacy of CPAP Treatment for Headache Among Those Patients Diagnosed With Obstructive Sleep Apnea

NCT00520156 · Status: UNKNOWN · Type: OBSERVATIONAL · Enrollment: 600

Last updated 2007-08-23

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

There is a well-documented but poorly understood relationship between headache disorders (e.g. migraine, cluster headaches, awakening headaches, etc.) and sleep disorders. One hypothesis includes an underlying disorder known as obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) with low overnight oxygen saturations and possibly elevated carbon dioxide levels which result in awakening headache. Bruxism, or grinding of the teeth, has also been anecdotally associated with headache. The converse of these arguments is that the patient may have a primary headache disorder, for example migraine, leading to disordered sleep patterns or insomnia. The true relationship between the two, as alluded above, is unknown. The actual prevalence of the two disorders occurring simultaneously is not known.

There have been several small, retrospective studies which have attempted to evaluate this relationship. One of these studies evaluated those patients diagnosed with OSA who were given the standard of care therapy - continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) - and found that headaches among these patients were improved after using CPAP. Again, this was a small, retrospective study.

We propose a study whereby patients who are referred for polysomnography (PSG, or "sleep study") are consented, then surveyed on the presence or absence of headache. A brief questionnaire is followed up with a more detailed questionnaire to characterize whether this headache that the patient has is truly a headache disorder. Following the survey and PSG, the patient's sleep study parameters are evaluated to see whether there are certain correlations between what has been recorded and the particular headache disorder present.

Lastly, if the patient was diagnosed with OSA and fitted with a CPAP device, the patient will be queried several weeks later to evaluate whether there was improvement or cessation of the headache disorder.

Conditions

Interventions

DEVICE

Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP)

Patients diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) will be offered standard of care treatment of CPAP (patients given oral appliances for OSA are excluded from our study). Note: our study is a survey-based and observational study following patients who are being evaluated for sleep disorders. Those patients diagnosed with OSA would be offered CPAP or possibly an oral appliance regardless of whether they are entered into our study or not.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Walter Reed Army Medical Center

    lead FED

Principal Investigators

  • Timothy M. Quast, MD · Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine; National Capital Consortium, Washington, DC

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Max Age
80 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2007-08-31
Completion
2008-08-31

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

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Entities

Diseases

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT00520156 on ClinicalTrials.gov