The neurobiology, diagnosis, and treatment of narcolepsy.

Unmet needs of patients with narcolepsy: perspectives on emerging treatment options

The treatment options currently available for narcolepsy are often unsatisfactory due to suboptimal efficacy, troublesome side effects, development of drug tolerance, and inconvenience. Our understanding of the neurobiology of narcolepsy has greatly improved over the last decade. This knowledge has not yet translated into additional therapeutic options for patients, but progress is being made. ...

The neurobiology of narcolepsy-cataplexy.

Etiopathogenesis and neurobiology of narcolepsy: a review.

Narcolepsy is a chronic lifelong sleep disorder and it often leaves a debilitating effect on the quality of life of the sufferer. This disorder is characterized by a tetrad of excessive daytime sleepiness, cataplexy (brief loss of muscle tone following strong emotion), hypnogogic hallucinations and sleep paralysis. There are two distinct subgroups of Narcolepsy: Narcolepsy with cataplexy and Na...

The neurobiology of narcolepsy.

Narcolepsy is characterized by excessive sleepiness and abnormal manifestations of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Neurochemical studies of human and canine narcolepsy have demonstrated disturbed monoaminergic and cholinergic function and suggest that deficits of noradrenaline availability in specific brain regions may account for much of its disordered pathophysiology. Genetic susceptibility t...

CSF markers in sleep neurobiology.

The cerebrospinal fluid has been used in the study of normal and pathological conditions of the central nervous system for more than a century. CSF analysis has also been applied to the study of sleep and its disorders but methodological aspects have often limited the results. The discovery of the hypocretin system (also known as orexin system) and its involvement in the pathophysiology of narc...