tdiu Can Sleep Apnea Be Secondary To Depression

[KennyJ]

I have an 80% overall rating and 70 % for Depression.

I have been diagnosed with Sleep Apnea. Can this be secondary to Depression and is it hard to prove. I have put in for TDIU so should I just wait on filing for Sleep apnea.

[Scottyp65]

I have an 80% overall rating and 70 % for Depression.

I have been diagnosed with Sleep Apnea. Can this be secondary to Depression and is it hard to prove. I have put in for TDIU so should I just wait on filing for Sleep apnea.

Kenny,

I see there are posibilities for it being both ways. I would offer though for you to look trough your medical records for any signs of the other symptoms of Sleep Apnea in your Military Medical Record. Some of the symptoms I listed to get service connection were, High Blood Pressure, Acid Reflux, Asthma, and Malaise. The last one was a Dr saying I was just overly tired, had gone to the clinic because I was fatigued. Was kind of pissed off because he made it sound like I was just a lazy S.O.B. Of course now I just love the Ignorant Bast...... Anyway all of these symptoms were a matter of record. Now if you don't have "diagnosed" HBP but can show where there were multiple times where your blood pressure was elevated at the times of appointments you may be able to make the same argument I did which was I had my Dr say I had the symptoms of Sleep Apnea while on Active Duty and that the treatment of my other conditions had masked their seeing it earlier.

Hope it helps.

[john999]

I see it the other way round with depression being aggravated by sleep apnea.

[Cavman]

I have an 80% overall rating and 70 % for Depression.

I have been diagnosed with Sleep Apnea. Can this be secondary to Depression and is it hard to prove. I have put in for TDIU so should I just wait on filing for Sleep apnea.

I would wait because they will most likely set your TDIU aside until they complete the new sleep apnea claim.

Cavman

[Ricky]

My current claim for OSA is trying to tie SC to it based upon the fact that I had in service HBP, DMII, Fibro type complaints and a diagnosis of "sleep difficulties". This was in 98 followed in 2000 of my retirement physical complaints of poor sleep which was diagnosised as "possible gulf war syndrom". This was followed in 02 with continued complaints diagnosed by civilain docs as "Poor sleep" and by the VA as insomia. They gave me some nerve pills and told me to make sure I practiced good sleep hygene. In 05 after my stroke the problems became worse so I began complaining again and was told it was probably due to the stroke. finally in Nov of this year civilain docs sent me for a sleep study which provided a diagnosis of moderate to severe sleep apnea and they issued me a CPAP.

Current Tricare doc provided a medical opinion that after a review of my in service medical records and post service records, my continued complaints, my Fibro type symptoms, HBP, DMII and 05 stroke the sleep apnea was more likley than not present at the time of the 98 inservice diagnosis of "sleep difficulities". He provided that his opinion was based upon his intermittent care of me in service and constant care after retirement and current accepted medical opinion that HBP, DMII and fibro type symptoms had a definite medical link. He quoted a couple of medical studies indicating this.

Should be a slam dunk but we know the VA. I will probably still be fighting the issue five years from now. In my research I found a ton of information on the net that provided that sleep apnea was a major risk factor for all of the above. However, I only found a couple of articles in which the opinion was that some of the above caused sleep apnea. There are a couple of studies conduted by VA docs which link them. I saw one or two that stated there had been cases where sleep apnea had been misdaignosed as fibro due to the complaints of muscle and joint aches/pain - you know that ole feeling like you have been run over by a mack truck the night before. It said such symptoms came from the continued wakening of the sleep apnea.

So as one post indicated below if a search of your medical records provide complaints of muscle aches, tiredness etc.... it might be better to attempt to SC it as the apnea being a cause of the depression vs depression causing the sleep apnea. However on the other hand, if these type symptoms came after the depression and are documented then you might have a chance if you can get a good IMO providing that these type symptoms are those of sleep apnea.

[augoldminer]

Sleep apnea can be caused by fibro, as fibro now has been shown to be a disorder of the Central Nervous

System. [Many va docs do not know of this research as they do not keep up on the latest research]

If you have fibro you need to get a DX of fibro.

I will bet that your fibro did not get better after you started using the c-pap.

By nerve pills do you mean anti depressants. anti depressants seldom work for fibro.

On being depressed, Do you feel that you are depressed or is this something that the doctors told you.

many of the symptoms of depression and fibro overlap, But having fibro does not mean that you have depression.

My fibro started in 2002. Was DXed with castleman's diease in 2003. [a very rare autoimmune disorder]

that i believe triggered the fibro. DXed with sleep apnea in 2005. heart attack and bypass surgery in 2006.

I filed for service connected disability based on the fibro and castleman's being caused by my use of trichoroethylene cleaning solvent in the navy in the 70s. I also claim that the sleep apnea was due to the fibro.the fibro triggered by the castleman's disease. the heart attack due to the sleep apnea.

I have been researching it all on the Internet and have about 1500 pages of the latest research studies that link it all together.

GARY J US NAVY 1970-74