Publications by authors named "James K. Walsh"

Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates inter-scorer variability in sleep staging, focusing on ambiguous time periods that may feature elements from multiple sleep stages.
  • A new method is suggested that classifies these ambiguous periods and measures scorers' accuracy accordingly, showing that 96.1% agreement can be achieved among human scorers compared to 80.8% with the traditional majority rule.
  • The approach not only improves agreement rates for sleep scorers but also has potential applications in training and certification programs for sleep scoring.
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Although mandibular advancement device (MAD) treatment of adults with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is generally less efficacious than positive airway pressure (PAP), the two treatments are associated, with similar clinical outcomes. As a sub-analysis of a randomized trial comparing the effect of MAD versus PAP on blood pressure, this study compared objectively measured adherence to MAD versus PAP treatment in adults with OSA. Adults with OSA (age 54.

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Study Objectives: To compare delta spectral power (delta) and odds ratio product (ORP) as measures of sleep depth during sleep restriction with placebo or a drug that increases delta.

Methods: This is a secondary analysis of data from a study of 41 healthy participants randomized to receive placebo or gaboxadol 15 mg during sleep restriction. Participants underwent in-laboratory sleep studies on two baseline, four sleep restriction (5-h), and two recovery nights.

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The objective of the study was to determine if sleep disorder, depression or anxiety screening status was associated with safety outcomes in a diverse population of hospital workers. A sample of shift workers at four hospitals participated in a prospective cohort study. Participants were screened for five sleep disorders, depression and anxiety at baseline, then completed prospective monthly surveys for the next 6 months to capture motor vehicle crashes, near-miss crashes, occupational exposures and medical errors.

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Study Objectives: The American Academy of Sleep Medicine has published manuals for scoring polysomnograms that recommend time spent in non-rapid eye movement sleep stages (stage N1, N2, and N3 sleep) be reported. Given the well-established large interrater variability in scoring stage N1 and N3 sleep, we determined the range of time in stage N1 and N3 sleep scored by a large number of technologists when compared to reasonably estimated true values.

Methods: Polysomnograms of 70 females were scored by 10 highly trained sleep technologists, two each from five different academic sleep laboratories.

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We evaluated factors associated with subjective and objective sleepiness at baseline and after 6 months of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy in patients with obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA).We analysed data from the Apnoea Positive Pressure Long-term Efficacy Study (APPLES), a prospective 6-month multicentre randomised controlled trial with 1105 subjects with OSA, 558 of who were randomised to active CPAP. Epworth sleepiness scale (ESS) scores and the mean sleep latency (MSL) on the maintenance of wakefulness test at baseline and after 6 months of CPAP therapy were recorded.

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Objective: Suvorexant is an orexin receptor antagonist approved for treating insomnia at doses of 10-20 mg. Previously reported phase III results showed that suvorexant was effective and well-tolerated in a combined-age population (elderly and nonelderly adults). The present analysis evaluated the clinical profile of suvorexant specifically in the elderly.

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Rationale: Sex-related differences in the clinical profiles of some insomnia medications have been previously reported.

Objective: To evaluate the clinical profile of suvorexant, a novel orexin receptor antagonist approved for treating insomnia at doses up to 20 mg, by sex subgroups.

Methods: Efficacy analyses by sex were based on pooled data from two similar phase 3, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, 3-month trials in elderly (≥65 years) and non-elderly (18-64 years) insomnia patients.

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Study Objectives: Suvorexant is an orexin receptor antagonist approved for treating insomnia at a maximum dose of 20 mg. Phase-3 trials evaluated two age-adjusted (non-elderly/elderly) dose-regimes of 40/30 mg and 20/15 mg with the primary focus on 40/30 mg. We report here results from pooled analyses of the 20/15 mg dose-regime, which was evaluated as a secondary objective in the trials.

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Background: The number of mobile health coaching applications is expanding at a rapid rate. An application that uses a guiding intelligence to deliver an individualized structured program has the potential to provide a significant benefit. However, there are few studies of this approach that examine multiple clinical outcomes in a longitudinal manner.

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Study Objectives: To evaluate factors associated with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) adherence in patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in the Apnea Positive Pressure Long-term Efficacy Study (APPLES) cohort.

Methods: The data from a prospective 6-mo multicenter randomized controlled trial with 558 subjects randomized to active CPAP and 547 to sham CPAP were analyzed to assess adherence to CPAP during first 2 mo (early period) and during months 5-6 (late period).

Results: Participants randomized to active CPAP had higher hours of nightly adherence compared to the sham CPAP group at both 2 (4.

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Background: Suvorexant is an orexin receptor antagonist for treatment of insomnia. We report results from two pivotal phase 3 trials.

Methods: Two randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group, 3-month trials in nonelderly (18-64 years) and elderly (≥65 years) patients with insomnia.

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Abstract: The practice of medicine is currently undergoing a transformation to become more efficient, cost-effective, and patient centered in its delivery of care. The aim of this article is to stimulate discussion within the sleep medicine community in addressing these needs by our approach as well as other approaches to sleep medicine care. The primary goals of the Sustainable Methods, Algorithms, and Research Tools for Delivering Optimal Care Study (SMART DOCS) are: (1) to introduce a new Patient-Centered Outcomes and Coordinated-Care Management (PCCM) approach for the future practice of sleep medicine, and (2) to test the PCCM approach against a Conventional Diagnostic and Treatment Outpatient Medical Care (CONV) approach in a randomized, two-arm, single-center, long-term, comparative effectiveness trial.

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Background And Objectives: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is associated with sleepiness, depression and reduced quality of life. However, it is unclear whether mild OSA has these negative impacts. Using data from the Apnea Positive Pressure Long-term Efficacy Study (APPLES), this study determined whether participants with mild OSA had greater sleepiness, more depressive symptoms and poorer quality of life in comparison to those without OSA.

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Background: Suvorexant (MK-4305) is an orexin receptor antagonist shown to be efficacious for insomnia over 3 months. We aimed to assess its clinical profile during and after 1 year of treatment.

Methods: We did a randomised, placebo-controlled, parallel-group trial at 106 investigational centres in the Americas, Australia, Europe, and South Africa from December, 2009, to August, 2011.

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Introduction: Numerous studies have demonstrated that sleep promotes memory consolidation, but there is little research on the effect of hypnotics on sleep-dependent memory consolidation. We compared bedtime administration of zolpidem-ER 12.5 mg (6- to 8-h duration of action), middle-of-the-night administration of zaleplon 10 mg (3- to 4-h duration of action), and placebo to examine the effect of different durations of hypnotic drug exposure on memory consolidation during sleep.

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Introduction: The Comparative Outcomes Management with Electronic Data Technology (COMET) platform is extensible and designed for facilitating multicenter electronic clinical research.

Background: Our research goals were the following: (1) to conduct a comparative effectiveness trial (CET) for two obstructive sleep apnea treatments-positive airway pressure versus oral appliance therapy; and (2) to establish a new electronic network infrastructure that would support this study and other clinical research studies.

Discussion: The COMET platform was created to satisfy the needs of CET with a focus on creating a platform that provides comprehensive toolsets, multisite collaboration, and end-to-end data management.

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Study Objective: To determine the impact of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) on weight change in persons with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).

Design Setting And Participants: The Apnea Positive Pressure Long-term Efficacy Study (APPLES) was a 6-month, randomized, double-blinded sham-controlled multicenter clinical trial conducted at 5 sites in the United States. Of 1,105 participants with an apnea hypopnea index ≥ 10 events/ hour initially randomized, 812 had body weight measured at baseline and after 6 months of study.

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An important function of sleep is the consolidation of memories, and features of sleep, such as rapid eye movement (REM) or sleep spindles, have been shown to correlate with improvements in discrete memory domains. Because of the methodological difficulties in modulating sleep, however, a causal link between specific sleep features and human memory consolidation is lacking. Here, we experimentally manipulated specific sleep features during a daytime nap via direct pharmacological intervention.

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Study Objective: To determine the neurocognitive effects of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy on patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).

Design, Setting, And Participants: The Apnea Positive Pressure Long-term Efficacy Study (APPLES) was a 6-month, randomized, double-blind, 2-arm, sham-controlled, multicenter trial conducted at 5 U.S.

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Context: Insomnia is a common and seriously impairing condition that often goes unrecognized.

Objectives: To examine associations of broadly defined insomnia (ie, meeting inclusion criteria for a diagnosis from International Statistical Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision, DSM-IV, or Research Diagnostic Criteria/International Classification of Sleep Disorders, Second Edition) with costly workplace accidents and errors after excluding other chronic conditions among workers in the America Insomnia Survey (AIS).

Design/setting: A national cross-sectional telephone survey (65.

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Background: De-identification and anonymization are strategies that are used to remove patient identifiers in electronic health record data. The use of these strategies in multicenter research studies is paramount in importance, given the need to share electronic health record data across multiple environments and institutions while safeguarding patient privacy.

Methods: Systematic literature search using keywords of de-identify, deidentify, de-identification, deidentification, anonymize, anonymization, data scrubbing, and text scrubbing.

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