Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) affects up to 20 percent of men in western cultures, five percent of whom experience significant physical symptoms.
A study published in September 2006 issue of the Journal of Forensic Sciences finds that sex offenders who suffer from obstructive sleep apnea experience more harmful psychological symptoms than do sex offenders with normal sleep patterns.
Sex offenders with known obstructive sleep apnea were administered a treatment using continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), whereby compressed air is delivered into the airway through a respiratory mask covering the nose or the nose and mouth while the subject sleeps. The air delivered via the CPAP devices maintains a patent airway in the individual, preventing apnea events from occurring. Apnea events are clinically defined as a complete cessation of breathing for a period of 10 seconds or longer, sometimes lasting as longer as 90 seconds or more.
The subjects were given criteria and asked to score themselves based on personal anger, verbal aggression, hostility and physical aggression before and after treatment. They scored themselves significantly lower (better) post-CPAP treatment, but it is unclear whether this treatment will lead to observational changes in behavior, according to the findings.
"The current study shows a potentially important relationship between sleep and aggression, and supports the need for further investigation of sleep disorders and disordered sexual behavior," says Dr. J. Paul Fedoroff, lead author of the study.
Fedoroff, M.D. is director of the Forensic Unit of the University of Ottawa Institute of Mental Health Research (IMHR), co-director of the Sexual Behaviors Clinic at the Integrated Forensic Program of the Royal Ottawa Hospital and associate professor of Psychiatry at the University of Ottawa.
The Journal of Forensic Sciences is the official publication of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS). It is devoted to the publication of original investigations, observations, scholarly inquiries, and reviews in the various branches of the forensic sciences.
/Sleep Apnea/cpap-curbs-sex-offenders-urges/2006-09-12.1824
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