Zepbound or Mounjaro for Sleep Apnea? New Standard of Care?

Can we use Tirzepatide [“Zepbound” or Mounjaro”] to help improve obstructive sleep apnea? A new study divided the sleep apnea patients into 2 groups : obese patients that did not want to use CPAP vs. a group of obese patients with sleep apnea on CPAP.

Now, keep in mind that obesity is associated with sleep apnea. Sleep apnea can have long-term complications, such as time to diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Therefore, there is a clear desire to reduce the severity of sleep apnea should one suffer from it. This study went on for about a year and had slightly less than 500 patients in the study. 70% of the participants were men, and the average BMI was 38. 17% of the participants Asian and a little of a 30% Hispanic. About 5% of the participants were Black. The mean AHI was 50, which is severe sleep apnea. They were no diabetics in the trial.

The study, like most studies, had a primary endpoint and a secondary endpoint. The primary point these studies were a reduction in the apnea – hypopnea index, also called the AHI. The secondary outcome looked at the apnea, hypopnea burden….. Not exactly clear that means. It also looked at functional outcome, weight change, as well as cardiometabolic parameters.

The actual study, and a peer review release, is still pending. All we have to go by is a press release divided by Eli Lilly from April 17 of this year. In the release, for the people that were not using CPAP, there was a 27% decrease in the Apnea Hypopnea Index, which from outward appearance would appear to be sign significance. For the people that were willing to use their CPAP, there was a 30% decrease in the Apnea Hypopnea Index, compared to the baseline. The weight loss was 18 to 20% compared to the baseline. The “2/3rds” response in the article refers to percent change in the Apnea Hypopnea Index vs. the actual number of Apnea Hypopnea episodes occurring..

They plan on actually presenting the results at the American diabetes association this June. Will this be a new standard of care? You can read the press release here : https://investor.lilly.com/news-releases/news-release-details/tirzepatide-reduced-sleep-apnea-severity-nearly-two-thirds

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