Heart and brain - sleep apnea and psychosis

[compnet]

Hello.  

I'm posting on the heart, brain and respitory forums because from what I've heard from my doctor, I have some form of sleep apnea.  And on reading up on sleep apnea I came across this statement: "If you have obstructive sleep apnea, your doctor may refer you to an ear, nose and throat doctor (otolaryngologist) to rule out any blockage in your nose or throat. An evaluation by a heart doctor (cardiologist) or a doctor who specializes in the nervous system (neurologist) may be necessary to look for causes of central sleep apnea."

I've had two short periods of "atypical psychosis" and it looks like I've got sleep apnea after a sleep study I just had based on some of what I've been told but I haven't gone over the results yet, they did find something wrong though and are having me go in for testing with the sleep apnea airway mask.

Anyway, I've read a brain tumor could be the cause of psychosis.
I also read that sleep apnea could be caused by a brain tumor, stroke, atrial fibrillation or congestive heart failure.

I see a possible connection there with brain issues.  My question is, what brain or heart condition might be most likely the cause of both psychosis and sleep apnea?  

Also, brain tumor or something else, what would be most likely for a type of psychosis that has only come twice for a limited amount of time, no symptoms the rest of the time, and nothing found with a neuropsychological?  (Major stress seemed to trigger the episodes.)

I'm interested in getting a CT SCAN, MRI, and heart testing to examine possible heart or brain causes for the psychosis episodes and sleep apnea.

Any help greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

[ggreg]

Yes, in fact I meant to say "deep sleep" or as you say REM sleep.  If I'm not mistaken, that's where dreaming happens, which is a way for the brain to rest, repair, and reorganize itself.  if the brain doesn't get a chance to do that, confusion is the result, and the more deep sleep you lose, the nuttier you feel.  As I mentioned in my first post, when I finally got relief from my pain, I slept 36 hours, filled with dreaming and hallucinations (deep sleep).  Just knowing you stopped breathing 34 times during REM sleep is definitely pointing to your need for the air mask to keep the breathing mechanism open, which should allow you to resume dreaming, and thus over a few weeks, hopefully you will feel whole again.  

If not, then your doc can pursue those heart ideas and other causes.  And I didn't know about the psychosis thing either until I went six months off and on without deep sleeping because of terrible pain, and once they fixed the pain, while I still have a few glitches in my thinking because pain drugs only last a certain number of hours into  the night, I am not feeing like I should check into an institution anymore.

[compnet]

I just came across some articles about sleep problems causing psychosis.

http://ki.se/content/1/c6/03/07/76/2Karanti.pdf
http://why-we-dream.com/psychosis.htm

And interestingly, one site says: "It's not about how many hours of sleep you get, but how much REM sleep you get. Higher stress, for example, need for more REM sleep."
So perhaps apnea can really interupt that.
http://au.*****************/question/index?qid=20091223204200AAFhpqH

[compnet]

ggreg, thank you for your post.  I must be thinking poorly, as I didn't much think of what you hit on -- that the psychosis could have been from the lack of sleep.  Even the preceding major stress could have had to do with poor sleep.  I sure hope that is the source.  Though my apnea is all the time, and the psychosis wasn't.

I'm soon to have a treatment sleep study with mask therapy but I did get to talk to my doctor over the phone about what they found.  He said it is a "subtle form of upper airway resistance" where my back throat collapses.  He also called it a "minor varient of sleep apnea."  They found that I stop breathing 10 times per hour, and 34 times per hour in deep sleep, plus some light snorring.  I'm not sure how long I am not breathing.  I will have to get a copy of the results.

I'd like to know if it is causing the fatigue, memory problems, and I wonder what else.

[ggreg]

Well, hold off on the expensive scans and heart tests until you get the second sleep experiment with a positive airway pressure mask.  You see, the connection between "psychosis" and sleep apnea is probably from the lack of sleep that sleep apnea causes.  When you don't get enough solid sleep, you can have all sorts of oddball mental impressions of things that seem out of place.  One time I didn't sleep well for more than six months, and I was ready to file for disability, and thought I would lose my mind, was sure I had MS or something.  But turned out, once I received treatment for an entirely different problem than yours, that is I had a lot of pain from an old car wreck, and I began to therefore sleep well, my "normal self" came back becuz I got some good sleep... in fact, I remember taking the medicine for my pain, and I slept for a full day and a half, had solid nightmares and hacllucinations, becuz I had been without sleep for so long.  By the way, I think it would be wise for you to go ahead and make an appointment with the sleep doctor, schedule it for, say, a week after your upcoming air mask test.  That way you'll be SURE that he'll go over what they found and what they want you to do about it, or suggest another cause and refer you to a specialist for whatever that is.  But I think it MUST have to do with the apnea, becuz they're wanting to do that mask test, to make sure it will help you sleep better, and if the mask doesn't help, and they KNOW it's apnea, why they might suggest a little surgery to correct some abnormality in the way your airway is set up.  By the way, sleep apnea can be caused by being overweight, perhaps having a thyroid problem where it swells, medications, maybe your tonsils need to come out.  But I do NOT think the apnea or the mental strangeness is from a brain tumor or heart problem, certainly not until the sleep doc has his say about you.  Also, assume your tired mind is working overtime on account of lack of solid sleep and that's why you've leaped from sleep apnea to brain tumor!