Obstructive sleep apnoea and a bipolar disorder diagnosis. Version 0.1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Impact of obstructive sleep apnoea for people with a bipolar disorder diagnosis
IRAS ID
240867
Contact name
Amy Brown
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Lancaster University
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
N/A, N/A
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 9 months, 8 days
Research summary
Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is a sleeping difficulty where the throat muscles relax and block airflow. The sleeper’s brain comes out of a deep sleep to restart breathing between five and thirty times an hour, causing extreme tiredness and low mood during the day. Research in the general population suggests that OSA is related to reduced quality of life and mood difficulties. Whilst OSA is estimated to affect 2-4 people out of 100 in the UK general population, as many as one in four of people with a bipolar disorder (BD) diagnosis may have OSA. BD is a diagnostic term that can be used to describe experiencing fluctuating mood, experiencing very low periods (often termed “depressive”) and extremely elevated, euphoric periods (often termed “manic”). It is believed that people with a BD diagnosis experience fluctuations in mood due to also having irregular sleep-wake patterns. OSA is likely to further disrupt sleep-wake patterns for people with a BD diagnosis, however, no research to date has investigated this. This study intends to look at the relationship between OSA and sleep and affect (short-term mood experience) variability for people who also have a BD diagnosis. People with a BD diagnosis will be invited to participate, one group without suspected OSA and one group with. The study will look to confirm that a smaller group of people within the suspected OSA group do show symptoms that could be diagnosed as OSA. Information about participants’ sleep (measured by a watch-like device and self-report) and affect (measured by self-report) will be collected on a daily basis across a fortnight. Comparisons will be made between the groups. It is predicted that people with suspected OSA will experience more variability in sleep and affect and will experience more extreme affect changes compared to the group without suspected OSA.
REC name
South Central - Oxford C Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/SC/0487
Date of REC Opinion
25 Sep 2019
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion