Info about Narcolepsy
Narcolepsy
Narcolepsy is a disease of the central nervous system and it manifest as a sleep disorder. The main symptom of narcolepsy is excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS). This symptom is present at all patients suffering from narcolepsy.
A person that suffers from narcolepsy is likely to fall asleep very quickly and in inappropriate situations for example at school or at work even though he or she had the normal amount of sleep during night. Moreover, drowsiness may persist for most of the day. Other symptoms of narcolepsy are cataplexy, hypnologic hallucinations, automatic behavior and sleep paralysis. These ones may not occur at all patients. Narcolepsy occurs in teenagers or young adults and the first symptom is extreme sleepiness during daytime. This may remain undiagnosed for a long period.
Narcolepsy occurs about as often as Parkinson does. In US it affect one in 2,000 people, in Israel on in 500,000 people, while in Japan the percent is much bigger, narcolepsy affecting one in 600 people. This condition remains undiagnosed for a long period of time as physicals rarely think of eat when patients complain about sleepiness.
Quite recently, narcolepsy was linked to some abnormal cells of the brain fount in the Hypotalamus. The structure and function of these nerve cells called Hypocretins were affects in the brains of patients suffering from narcolepsy. These abnormal cells may also be responsible for the abnormal REM activity that appears during the day. Normally, Rem activity appears after 90 minutes of sleep, but in the case of patients with narcolepsia it appears as soon as after 20 minus of sleep. Some abnormalities found to the white cells of patients with narcolepsia also indicated that this can be an auto immune condition like ankylosing spondylitis and multiple sclerosis.
Narcolepsy can be diagnosed after a clinical evaluation that includes a physical exam and a detailed medical history, sleep logs or diaries, specific questionnaire and some laboratory tests. Questionnaires ask the patient what are the chances to fall asleep in a certain situation. Sleep logs are recommended to be kept for a couple of week and they should comprise the sleep pattern and the medicamentation used to induce sleep. The laboratory tests include polysomnography, and multiple sleep latency tests.
Narcolepsy is treated with different kind of drugs that depend on the stage the disease is and on what lifestyle the patient has. These may take into consideration his job, other activities, family life. The type of drugd depends on the symptoms manifested by narcoleptic patients. Severe daytime sleepiness is treated with high stimulants. Insomnia and depression triggered by the disease will also require treatment, while occasional cataplexy may not need any drugs.
Narcolepsy should not be confused with insomnia. Patients suffering from insomnia cannot sleep at night, while narcolepsy patients are tired even though they had enough sleep during night. Also, insomnia patients do nt present REM during their day sleep.