Psychiatry Investig.  2015 Apr;12(2):183-189. 10.4306/pi.2015.12.2.183.

A Comparison of Personality Characteristics and Psychiatric Symptomatology between Upper Airway Resistance Syndrome and Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome

• So SJ
• Lee HJ
• Kang SG
• Cho CH
• Yoon HK
• Kim L

• KMID: 2316427
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4306/pi.2015.12.2.183

Abstract

OBJECTIVE
To investigate the personality characteristics of patients with upper airway resistance syndrome (UARS) and those of patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS).
METHODS
Eighty-eight patients with UARS and 365 patients with OSAS participated. All patients had a diagnostic full-night attended polysomnography (PSG) and completed the Athens Insomnia Scale (AIS), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), Symptom Checklist-90-Revision (SCL-90-R) and Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ).
RESULTS
The UARS group scored significantly higher than the OSAS group on the ESS, AIS, and PSQI (p<0.001). The scores of all SCL-90-R subscales in the UARS group were significantly higher than those in the OSA group (all p<0.001, except for somatization, p=0.016). Patients with UARS scored lower on EPQ-E (extroversion/introversion) (p=0.006) and EPQ-L (lie) (p<0.001) than those with OSA. UARS patients also showed higher scores on EPQ-P (psychoticism) (p=0.002) and EPQ-N (neuroticism) (p<0.001) than OSAS patients.
CONCLUSION
Our results suggest that patients with UARS have worse subjective sleep quality than OSAS patients in spite of their better PSG findings. UARS patients tend to have more neurotic and sensitive personalities than patients with OSAS, which may be a cause of the clinical features of UARS.

Keyword

Upper airway resistance syndrome; Obstructive sleep apnea; Personality characteristics

MeSH Terms

Airway Resistance*
Humans
Polysomnography
Surveys and Questionnaires
Sleep Apnea, Obstructive*
Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders