Behavioral Problems Improve After OSA Treatment

Children with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) who had tonsillectomy andadenoidectomy showed improvements in behavioral and emotional problems.The study included 42 children with OSA who had the procedure and acontrol group of 41 children without OSA. Reporting in the Archives of Otolaryngology(January 2005), the researchers found that children with OSA hada 29% rate of behavioral and emotional problems, compared with a rate of10% in the control group.

The OSA group fared much better after the surgical procedure. The results ofthe study found that only 12% the OSA group scored in the abnormal or borderlinerange for behavioral and emotional problems. "This study provides furtherevidence that behavioral and emotional problems are present in childrenwith OSA and improve after treatment. Large improvements in disease-specifichealth-related QOL (quality of life) are also found,"concluded the authors.