Prevalence and predictors of obstructive sleep apnea in patients with bipolar disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background & Objective: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) has been increasingly recognized as a comorbidity in many psychiatric disorders, including bipolar disorder (BD). This study aimed to synthesize existing evidence to determine the frequency of OSA in patients diagnosed with BD and identify potential predictors of its occurrence.

Methods: PubMed, Scopus, CENTRAL (Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials), and Google Scholar databases were searched for English-language papers published up from 1 January 1960 to 31 October 2023 that reported incidences of OSA in patients with BP and provided sufficient data for quantitative analysis. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) and Cochrane Handbook (version 5.1.0) guidelines were followed. Meta-regression analyses were done to identify predictors that correlate with the prevalence of obstructive sleep apnea.

Results: The systematic review identified a total of 14 eligible studies. The pooled prevalence of OSA in individuals with BD was determined to be [24.55%] (95% confidence interval (CI): [17.25 to 32.63%, I=99.57%]). Meta-regression analyses showed that male gender was associated with a higher prevalence of OSA, while body mass index (BMI) and mean age showed no significance in predicting OSA prevalence.

Conclusion: Our results demonstrated higher incidence of OSA in patients with BD. Male BD patients had higher rate of OSA.