Opiate Sleep Disordered Breathing Study

The purpose for this study is to test the hypothesis that sleep disordered breathing is more prevalent amongst a group of patients on high dose opiates for chronic pain. Aims 1. To define the prevalence of sleep disordered breathing in a group of patients on oral morphine for chronic pain. 2. To determine the prevalence of respiratory failure in this cohort of patients. Patients on long term opiates (\>6 months) from an outpatient pain clinic population on long acting morphine formulations \> 40 mg/day, Oxycontin 30 mg/day, and Methadone \> 20 mg/day were prospectively recruited. Home polysomnograms were done on them. During their clinical review they have spirometry, arterial blood gases, psychomotor vigilance tests done on them.