Impact of Positive Airway Pressure Among Obstructive Sleep Apnea Essay

Impact of Positive Airway Pressure Among Obstructive Sleep Apnea Patients - Essay Example This amounted to a study population of 15,424 individuals, who were then followed for a minimum of 12 months and a baseline of 24 months to determine what if any health impact PAP might have been having on treatment. Of those participants, approximately ten percent did not use PAP while the remaining 90% did. Furthermore, the study designers controlled for previous illness by eliminating anyone who had a previous diagnosis of cardiovascular disease, to ensure that these results did not bias the sample. The study measured health effects by measuring the rates of hospitalization among those using PAP to those who were not. They measured this using two different metrics: total hospitalization and hospitalization related to OSA. OSA is associated with a wide number of illnesses, including cardiovascular disease, heart failure, coronary artery disease, cerebrovascular disease, diabetes, and hypertension, so any hospitalization for these reasons (which obviously constitute a large number of total hospitalizations) would be considered OSA related hospitalizations (1). The study found a statistically significant (p

Panic Disorder and Agoraphobia Literature Review Essay

Panic Disorder and Agoraphobia Literature Review - Essay Example panic attack are the need to escape, a feeling of imminent danger or doom, heart palpitations, trembling, sweating, chest pain or discomfort, shortness of breath, nausea or abdominal discomfort, tingling sensation, dizziness or light-headedness, fear of losing control and chills or heat flush (ADAA, 2009). Many people with panic disorder suffer from agoraphobia. In agoraphobia, the individual avoids going to places or situations where either an attack of panic had previously occurred or the individual may think that the escape route from that place may be difficult. Those suffering from agoraphobia are constantly on guard for the next episode of panic attack. According to DSM-IV-TR, for an individual to be diagnosed as having panic disorder, "panic attacks must be associated with more than 1 month of subsequent persistent worry about (1) having another attack, (2) consequences of the attack, or (3) significant behavioral changes related to the attack" (Daniels, 2006). Agoraphobia causes significant psychological anguish and also many social, medical and occupational consequences like restricted role functioning, increased use of health care and social withdrawal (Daniels, 2006). Panic disorder is characterised by panic attacks which occur spontaneously and unexpectedly and the frequency of these attacks vary from several attacks a day to only a few per year. Many theories have been put forward to ascertain the pathophysiology of panic disorder. While some researchers favour the serotonergic model wherein the exaggerated response of the post-synaptic receptor to synaptic serotonin is the proposed to be the cause of panic attack, some others postulate increased sensitivity to adrenergic discharge as the cause. Several other models have also been proposed like the the lactate model and the locus cerulus model. The prevalence of panic disorder is estimated to be 1.5- 5%. (Daniels, 2006). Panic disorder is a wide spectrum and other than panic attacks and