Hope for snorers – and their partners – as daily pill could reduce symptoms

The first pill for snoring could soon be coming to a chemist near you, after a new study showed promising results.

Until now, there has been little in the way of medicine to deal with the problem, which as well as being annoying for anyone else in bed, can be a worrying sign for health.

Results of a clinical trial presented at the European Respiratory Society showed symptoms of those taking a daily dose of sulthiame showed a reduction in symptoms of up to half.

The drug is currently used to treat childhood epilepsy, but if further testing proves successful it may also help those with obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA).

At the moment, treatment generally consists of people using a machine that blows air through a face mask to keep the airways open at night.

But patients don’t tend to find such devices comfortable or easy to use, so an effective medicine would be welcome news to many.

Patients with OSA, a common condition which many don’t even realise they have, often snore loudly, their breathing starts and stops during the night, and they may wake up several times. This causes tiredness, and it can also increase the risk of high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

The new research looked at 298 people in a double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial at 28 different centres across Europe.

The patients were assessed while sleeping at the start of the trial, and after four weeks and 12 weeks in the study. Their breathing, levels of oxygen in the blood, heart rhythm, eye movements, brain and muscle activity were all monitored.

The patients were divided into four groups: 74 people took 100 mg of sulthiame daily, 74 took 200 mg, 75 took 300 mg and the remaining 75 took a placebo.

Sulthiame is a drug that targets the respiratory system by inhibiting an enzyme called carbonic anhydrase and stimulating the upper airway muscles.

The people taking sulthiame had fewer pauses in their breathing and higher levels of oxygen in their blood during sleep.

A measure of the frequency of respiratory pauses during sleep, called AHI3a [2], was 17.8% lower for patients taking the lowest dose, 34.8% lower for patients on the medium dose and 39.9% lower for patients on the highest dose.

Researchers said that using another method of measurement, the effect of the treatment was close to a 50% reduction of respiratory pauses with more profound lowering of oxygen levels.

OSA patients who had been feeling sleepy during the daytime also felt less so when they took the pill.

Side effects such pins and needles, headache, fatigue, and nausea, were generally mild or moderate.

Professor Jan Hedner from Sahlgrenska University Hospital 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.’

Professor Sophia Schiza, head of the European Respiratory Society, 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.’

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