Group Therapy After Weight Loss Helps Maintain Improvements in Obstructive Sleep Apnea

In a recent Swedish trial, obese men with moderate-to-severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA; apnea-hypopnea index [AHI] ≥15 events/hour) who followed a very-low-energy diet (550 kcal/day) for 9 weeks experienced substantial weight loss and AHI improvement (JW Gen Med Jan 14 2010). After week 9, the same men were enrolled in a weight loss maintenance program (monthly group therapy meetings led by a nurse and a dietitian); the investigators now report that the initial benefits were sustained at 1 year.

Of 63 obese men (age range, 30–65) treated with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), 58 completed the very-low-energy diet phase, and 44 completed the entire weight loss maintenance program. At baseline, mean AHI was 36 events per hour, and…