Pharmacologic Approaches to the Treatment of Obstructive Sleep Apnea

The concept of pharmacologic therapy for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) treatment has always been considered but no agent has had a large enough effect size to drive substantial adoption. A new construct of the pathophysiology of OSA is that there are 4 primary physiologic traits that dictate who develops OSA. These traits vary substantially between patients, meaning OSA may develop for quite different reasons. This encourages new thinking regarding pharmacologic therapy and continued attempts to find the ideal or acceptable drug.