For the last decades, obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) has been treated with positive airways pressure devices, usually CPAP. But as many patients will attest, CPAP is often uncomfortable and can make it difficult to sleep both for the patient and bedpartner. A number of researchers, including Andrew Wellman and his colleagues at Brigham and Women’s, have sought to go beyond CPAP by developing drug treatments for OSA. A number of drugs have been tried, with no success, until recently, Andrew and his colleague Luigi Taranto, tried a combination of atomoxetine (Strattera) and oxybutynin (Ditropan). The results were surprising and dramatic; almost all the patients improved significantly. These results led to the formation of Apnimed, Inc., a company created to test the results of atomoxetine and oxybutynin in a larger number of patients.
The “Phase 2” trial of these drugs is now in progress at 12 centers across the U.S. Patients who are 25-65 years of age (up to 70 for women) and have been diagnosed with moderate to severe OSA may be eligible for treatment of 10 days. The sites where the trial is taking place are:
More information concerning the clinical trial can be found at ClinicalTrials.gov: clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03845023.
** This post was originally published on https://myapnea.org/blog/clinical-trial-of-drug-treatment-in-obstructive-sleep-apnea-osa
