New findings published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine have revealed how depressive symptoms generally seen in sleep apnea patients could be treated using continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP).

In a news release, Dr. David R. Hillman, a clinical professor at the University of Western Australia, said, “Effective treatment of obstructive sleep apnea resulted in substantial improvement in depressive symptoms, including suicidal ideation. The findings highlight the potential for sleep apnea, a notoriously under diagnosed condition, to be misdiagnosed as depression”.

Researchers said that depression patients were asked about experiencing sleep apnea symptoms at the time of diagnosis and treatment.

During the study, 426 participants, including 243 men and 183 men, an average of 52 years old, were recruited. According to the researchers, all the candidates had never been referred to a hospital sleep center to be evaluated for sleep apnea before. They accessed the patients' levels of depressive symptoms using the Patient Health Questionnaire, or PHQ-9.

On the basis of the sample, 293 were diagnosed with sleep apnea and prescribed CPAP. The prescription involved mild air pressure, which is usually delivered through a mask that keeps airways open when the person sleeps.

The researchers asked the study participants to use CPAP for at least five hours every night for three months. During the study, they found that 4% of the patients adhered to the treatment, or nine out of 228 reported still experienced depressive symptoms. Besides this, among the 41 patients who expressed feelings of self-harm, no one reported going through the same feeling at the end of the three-month period.