New partnership with US healthcare company to trial new treatment for OSA
According to SNORE Australia, around nine percent of women and 25 percent of men in Australia have clinically significant obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA); a condition where your breathing can become very shallow or you may even stop breathing -- briefly -- while you sleep.
And, according to the Sleep Health Foundation Report, Asleep on the Job, 51.2% of those with OSA have inadequate sleep. This can then lead to issues such as impaired alertness, increased fatigue and even the development of mental health issues such as depression.
A new partnership between MICCN and US-based healthcare company, Apnimed, will soon seek to trial novel treatments for OSA.
Specifically, the trial will assess the effect that specific combinations of drugs have on sleep apnoea severity in men and women with moderate-to-severe OSA. Additional measures of sleep apnoea severity, cardiovascular risk factors, and sleepiness outcomes will also be assessed.
“This exciting international partnership will help to deliver pharmaceutical information that could complement our findings in the neuroscience of OSA,” said Dr Bradley Edwards, Deputy Director of MICCN’s Sleep Program and a member of the Monash University Department of Physiology team. “Our intention at MICCN is to find safe and reliable treatments for the many people who suffer, or who are at risk of suffering from OSA, so that their sleep and general health is improved, and they can experience the positive impacts that this brings to their daily life. I look forward to working with Apnimed in helping to make this happen.”
For more information, please contact Dr Bradley Edwards on t: 03 9905 0187, e: bradley.edwards@monash.edu.