[The effect of drugs taken by patients with respiratory pathology on the nature of sleep and on respiratory characteristics].

The influence of medications and the usual taken by patients with respiratory disease on the characteristics of sleep and nocturnal respiration is complex, due to the fact of the inter-dependence which exists between these two physiological domains. Numerous medications have been evaluated for the treatment of nocturnal respiratory anomalies observed in patients suffering from chronic airflow obstruction or from a sleep apnoea or hypopnoea syndrome. For the greater part, the efficacy of these drugs remains limited and in the case of nocturnal sleep apnoea no pharmacological approach has an efficacy comparable either to mechanical or surgical treatments. It is thus important in these patients to appreciate the limits of medications prescribed for a specific purpose and the deleterious effect which may occur with certain medications employed for a symptomatic goal.