PSYCHOLOGICAL STATUS, SYNDROMATIC MEASURES, AND COMPLIANCE WITH NASALCPAP THERAPY FOR SLEEP-APNEA

38 male patients with obstructive sleep apnea were asked to complete 2 weeks of rating symptoms, physkal examination, diagnostic polysomnogr aphy, and MMPI testing prior to being placed on nasal continuous posit ive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy. Six months later, 26 (72.2%) of th e 36 subjects available for follow-up showed continued compliance. A r egression analysis conducted with those 28 subjects who completed all pretreatment measures showed that continued therapy was predicted by s uch pretreatment measures as patients' body mass index, ratings of day time sleepiness and nocturnal sleep quality, and MMPI Depression and H ypochondriasis scale scores (R2 = 0.63). Eventual compliers had a high er Body Mass Index, reported less daytime sleepiness and better noctur nal sleep quality, and scored lower on the MMPI D and Hs scales prior to treatment than did the noncompliers. A linear discriminant function analysis with analog cross-validation showed these five predictors wo uld identify approximately 80% of eventual noncompliers and 97% of tho se who display compliance. It was concluded that subjective report and personality measures may be useful in predicting long-term use. Addit ional studies are needed to assess the clinical significance of the no ted MMPI scale elevations among sleep apnea patients in general and am ong those patients who display eventual noncompliance.