Chronic pain is common and worsens daytime sleepiness, insomnia, and quality of life in veterans with obstructive sleep apnea
- S-Med
- Aug 12
- 2 min read
Our results indicate that CP is a common comorbidity among veterans recently diagnosed with OSA. CP symptoms in veterans with OSA persisted for several years, affected multiple body regions, were predominantly of neuropathic origin, and characterized by moderate severity and interference in daily activities. Furthermore, veterans with CP and OSA experienced worse insomnia symptoms, greater daytime sleepiness, and decreased HRQoL compared with those with OSA alone, even after controlling for other relevant factors. These results offer new insights through a multidimensional characterization of CP in veterans with OSA and show that CP is associated with worse symptom burden in patients with OSA.
he negative association between CP and insomnia severity was robust as self-reported CP was associated with an increase of 3.82 points on the ISI. Furthermore, based on group average ISI scores, veterans with OSA and CP presented with clinically significant moderate insomnia as compared with participants with OSA-only who had sub-threshold insomnia on average, despite no significant differences in the proportion of insomnia disorder diagnosis between groups. CP is a known predictor of insomnia and it has been consistently associated with greater insomnia symptom severity Our results are congruent with those from a recent observational, retrospective study, which identified CP as significant clinical predictor of ISI subgroups among veterans newly diagnosed with OSA. In that study, veterans with CP (defined as EHR-documented pain medication prescription within 6 months or attendance to a VA pain clinic within 12 months of study enrollment) had greater odds of clinical insomnia (ie, ISI ≥ 15; OR = 1.7; 95% CI = 1.1–2.6; P < .05) when compared with those without CP. These findings indicate that CP contributes to greater insomnia symptom severity and a higher likelihood of insomnia disorder in adults with OSA.
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