![]() ![]() Improving the quality of nighttime sleep can combat excessive daytime sleepiness and help relieve persistent feelings of fatigue. Many people with narcolepsy take short, regularly scheduled naps at times when they tend to feel sleepiest. Drug therapy should be supplemented by behavioral strategies. Two classes of antidepressant drugs - tricyclic antidepressants and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors - have proved effective in controlling cataplexy in many patients. Food and Drug Administration has approved a drug called modafinil for the treatment of excessive daytime sleepiness. Two or three short naps during the day may help control sleepiness and maintain alertness. Antidepressants may help with muscle control. Central nervous system stimulants are usually prescribed for excessive sleepiness. Ideally, this can be done using a minimal amount of medicine. It's also important to reduce times when you lose muscle control. The goal of treatment of narcolepsy is to help you remain as alert as possible during the day. Your tolerance for specific medicines, procedures, or therapiesĮxpectations for the course of the disease Your age, overall health, and medical history Specific treatment will be determined by your healthcare provider based on: Narcolepsy is not definitively diagnosed in most patients until 10 to 15 years after the first symptoms appear. To test for a genetic mutation often found in people who tend to have narcolepsy. This test measures when you fall asleep and how quickly rapid eye movement (REM) sleep occurs. A sleep specialist will monitor you during an entire night of sleep. In addition to a complete medical history and physical exam, lab tests to confirm diagnosis and plan treatment may include: Many older patients find that some daytime symptoms decrease in severity after age 60. Whatever the age of onset, patients find that the symptoms tend to get worse over the two to three decades after the first symptoms appear. You may have other difficulties as you cope with this condition including:įeelings of intense fatigue and continual lack of energyĭifficulty in concentrating and memorizing Performing routine tasks without conscious awareness of doing so, and often without memory of it.ĭisrupted nighttime sleep and waking up often Vivid and often scary dreams and sounds reported when falling asleep.Īutomatic behavior. Being unable to talk or move for about one minute when falling asleep or waking up. A sudden loss of muscle control ranging from slight weakness to total collapse. An overwhelming desire to sleep at inappropriate times.Ĭataplexy. Symptoms may include:Įxcessive daytime sleepiness (EDS). ![]() However, people may experience symptoms differently. The following are the most common symptoms of narcolepsy. It is caused by a deficiency in the production of a brain chemical that helps neurons talk to each other. ![]() It involves the body's central nervous system, which includes the brain and spinal cord. This working definition provides helpful insights into murine cataplexy and should allow objective and accurate comparisons of cataplexy in future studies using mouse models of narcolepsy.The cause of narcolepsy is not known. It remains unclear whether murine cataplexy is triggered by strong emotions or whether mice remain conscious during the episodes as in people with narcolepsy. Bouts of cataplexy fitting this definition are common in mice with disrupted orexin/hypocretin signaling, but these events almost never occur in wild type mice. To distinguish a cataplexy episode from REM sleep after a brief awakening, at least 40 seconds of wakefulness must precede the episode. In addition, theta activity dominates the EEG during the episode, and video recordings document immobility. The group concluded that murine cataplexy is an abrupt episode of nuchal atonia lasting at least 10 seconds. To establish a common language, the International Working Group on Rodent Models of Narcolepsy reviewed the literature on cataplexy in people with narcolepsy and in dog and mouse models of narcolepsy and then developed a consensus definition of murine cataplexy. Many researchers are now studying mouse models of narcolepsy, but definitions of cataplexy-like behavior in mice differ across labs. People with narcolepsy often have episodes of cataplexy, brief periods of muscle weakness triggered by strong emotions. ![]()
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