A primary care physician tells The Patriot Ledger readers about the dangers of opioid use with sleep apnea patients.

Obese patients with signs of sleep apnea are at high risk for opioid related complications….Their pain symptoms should be treated very cautiously with relatively low dose opioids, pending evaluation by a sleep specialist.  Patients with a confirmed diagnosis of sleep apnea who are using “CPAP” breathing devices in bed are still at high risk with opioids, because they often forget or refuse to use their CPAP device.