A pill used to treat epilepsy could help treat sleep apnoea, a debilitating sleeping disorder that causes temporary lapses in breathing.
Swedish experts found patients taking the drug sulthiame had a up to 40 per cent reduction in symptoms — including restless nights and loud snoring.
As well as causing exhaustion, sleep apnoea can increase the risk of deadly conditions like high blood pressure, stroke and type 2 diabetes.
Current treatment involves sufferers using an uncomfortable mechanical mask as they sleep which pumps fresh air into their nose and mouth.
Typical treatment for obstructive sleep apnoea involves sufferer using a mechanical mask as they sleep that pump fresh air into their nose and mouth. Stock image
But many patients find the machines uncomfortable and hard to use, prompting experts to seek alternative treatments.
One of these is sulthiame, which while mainly used as a medication for epilepsy, also improves breathing by stimulating muscles in people’s upper airway.
Professor Jan Hedner from Sahlgrenska University Hospital and the University of Gothenburg in Sweden presented the results of a ‘gold standard’ clinical trial of the drug on almost 300 obstructive sleep apnoea patients.
The patients, who hailed from Spain, France, Belgium, Germany and the Czech Republic had all found themselves unable to continue to use the special masks typically used for obstructive sleep apnoea patients.
Participants underwent tests to examine their breathing, blood oxygen levels, eye movements and brain and muscle activity while sleeping at the start of the trial to establish a baseline.
They were then divided into three groups. Three of these were given a daily sulthiame tablet at one of three doses, 100mg, 200mg or 300mg.
The final group was given a placebo to act as a control.
Participants then underwent the same sleep tests at four weeks and at the trial conclusion of 12 weeks to explore the impact of the drug.
Researchers found those taking the drug had fewer pauses in their nighttime breathing and higher levels of oxygen in their blood while sleeping.
The observed effect was stronger in the higher doses with patients taking the 300mg tablet having an almost 40 per cent reduction on these breathing pauses, compared to 18 per cent in the lowest dose.
Patients on the drug also reported feeling more rested when surveyed by researchers.
Trial results, which have yet to peer-reviewed, also found side effects from sulthiame which include pins and needles, fatigue and nausea were generally mild and moderate among the groups taking the drug.
Professor Hedner said the results opened up a possible treatment to patients who previously had no alternative to the standard masks.
‘Many people find these machines hard to use over the long term, so there is a need to find alternative treatments,’ he said.
‘Although sulthiame is already available as a treatment for childhood epilepsy, we still need to carry out a phase III study to confirm the beneficial respiratory effects of this drug in a larger group of patients with OSA (obstructive sleep apnoea).’
Professor Sophia Schiza, head of the European Respiratory Society on sleep disordered breathing and an expert in respiratory and sleep medicine at the University of Crete and who was not involved in the study welcomed the findings.
‘Many of us know that we snore or that our partner snores. If snoring is accompanied by other symptoms, such as waking up often in the night, feeling fatigued and/or sleepy during the daytime, then it’s time to speak to a doctor,’ she said.
‘This is one of the first studies to suggest that a drug treatment could help some patients, and the results are promising.
‘We need to continue testing sulthiame and other treatments to understand their long-term effects, including any side effects. For example, we’d like to see whether treatment can help with lowering blood pressure and preventing cardiovascular disease for people with OSA.’
While estimates vary charities have said that obstructive sleep apnoea affects as many as 10million people in the UK with men twice as likely to be affected than women.
However, they add that less 1million of this total are actually diagnosed with the condition.
Whilst more commonly used in Europe sulthiame isn’t routinely used in the NHS as the medication is an unlicensed medication in the UK.
This means that while it can be used medics wishing to prescribe it must go through extra approval processes and its only deployed where other medications have failed.
OpenPrescribing an NHS backed data source shows sulthiame has been prescribed 100 times in England between January and June this year, the latest figures available.
The average cost of the drug was just shy of £260 a packet or roughly £4 a pill.
