Assessment of anxiety levels in personality in patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome before and after a month of treatment with continuous positive airway pressure CPAP

Currently, obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) is one of the disorders that mostly deteriorates the quality of life of patients. Personality changes and high anxiety levels have been considered by many authors as apnea sleep symptoms. The nasal continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is the most commonly used treatment in this sleep disorder, up to now. The purpose of this study is to evaluate neuroticism and extraversion personality dimensions, and the levels of state-trait anxiety in patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome before and after a month of treatment with CPAP. The sample was composed of 19 patients with sleep apnea. Results showed no statistical significant differences in the levels of neuroticism (p= 0,18), extraversion (p= 0,16) and state anxiety (p= 0,33) before and after the use of CPAP as treatment. Whereas, after a month of treatment a decrease in the levels of trait anxiety was observed (p= 0,04).