Oxygen Therapy
To treat COPD, your doctor will recommend long-term oxygen therapy. This helps increase survival and improves the quality of life of hypoxemic patients. It’s often prescribed for other patients with hypoxemic chronic lung disease. [4]
But oxygen therapy is ineffective for obstructive sleep apnea. If you have overlap syndrome, you’ll need to address OSA with either CPAP or bilevel positive airway pressures and assess whether you still need supplemental oxygen.
Bronchodilators
Bronchodilators [5] are inhaled medications that open up your airways. They can help make breathing easier during the day and at night.
Inhaled bronchodilators help with many symptoms of COPD. Your doctor might prescribe multiple bronchodilators, depending on your severity of COPD.