In conjunction with Neuroscience Research Australia, the Woolcock team is running 2 trials on medications for sleep apnea. Recent work has shown at least 20% of patient may respond to medications that have been used in the past as sleeping pills. Previously these have been single night trials and we are proceeding with a month long trial in patients who are screened to check their suitability for the medication. In this trial some volunteers will receive the active drug and some a matching placebo for 30 days. For further information contact [email protected]
We are also running 2 single night trials for patients with sleep apnea. Our group is trying to understand why pain-killers like morphine may actually paradoxically improve sleep apnea in some people and make it worse in others. This paradoxical finding is important for two reasons – firstly, because it may give us clues for drug treatment opportunities in sleep apnea and secondly, because it is believed that impaired breathing is an important cause of health risk in some people who use pain-killers like morphine.
