The Connection Between Children and OSA

Hello, I’m Dr. Tom Drake and today I would like to talk with you about how some children with OSA are actually being misdiagnosed as having ADHD by doctors, teachers, and parents.

The CDC ( Center for Disease Control ) states that over 6.1 million children in the US have been diagnosed with ADHD in the US.

What has gone largely unnoticed is that many of these children do not have psychological problems but are actually manifesting symptoms of sleep deprivation.

You see children who are sleep deprived have different behavior then sleep deprived adults.

The European Respitory Journal, in 2016, published an article “ about the effects of Sleep Disordered Breathing in children 2-18 years old.

In it they state, “ Children with any level of OSA have increased frequency of hyperactivity and inattention.” And of course, everyone knows that these are the major symptoms of ADHD!

So it is easy to see how these two conditions could be confused.

They went on to state: “ Children with sleep disordered breathing have increased behavior disorders such as conduct problems , rapid mood swings, anxiety and depression.

So it is really important that if you see these behaviors in your children or students, please have them checked for obstructive sleep apnea. It could be the cause of these behaviours and treating it properly will benefit everyone!

Thanks for listening.

This is another episode of sleep talk with Dr. Tom.