CATAPLEXY, A MAJOR SYMPTOM OF NARCOLEPSY, IS CHARACTERIZED BY A SUDDEN, BILATERAL LOSS OF MUSCLE TONE (AND POSSIBLE FALL) WITH PRESERVED consciousness. It is usually triggered by emotions such as laughter, attempt at repartee, or anger. Although cataplexy is seen as an isolated intrusion of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep atonia into wakefulness, the neural structures underlying it are however r...

We conducted a longitudinal study to investigate the relation between sleep experiences and dissociative symptoms in a mixed inpatient sample at a private clinic evaluated on arrival and at discharge 6 to 8 weeks later. Using hierarchical regression analyses and structural equation modeling, we found a link between sleep experiences and dissociative symptoms and determined that specifically dec...

Narcolepsy is a neurological disorder characterized by sleepiness and episodes of cataplexy. Cataplexy is an abrupt loss of muscle tone, most often triggered by sudden, strong emotions. A subset of cells in the medial medulla of the narcoleptic dog discharged at high rates only in cataplexy and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. These cells were noncholinergic and were localized to ventromedial an...

Identification of genes determining narcolepsy susceptibility is important not only for understanding that disorder but also for possible clues to general sleep-control mechanisms. Studies in humans reveal at least one such gene related to the major histocompatibility complex and in dog an as-yet-unmapped single, autosomal recessive gene canarc-1. Gene markers for canarc-1 were therefore sought...

RECENT CSF AND POSTMORTEM BRAIN HYPOCRETIN MEASUREMENTS IN HUMAN NARCOLEPSY SUGGEST THAT HYPOCRETIN DEFICIENCY IS INVOLVED IN THE PATHOPHYSIOLOGY OF THE DISEASE.1,2 Extended studies in idiopathic and symptomatic narcolepsy, as well as in various neurological conditions, suggest that CSF hypocretin-1 measures could be used as a diagnostic tool for narcolepsy.3,4 Although the levels in selected h...

Sir: A number of prospective open-label studies and case reports and 1 placebo-controlled study (showing a significant effect vs. placebo on the Clinical Global ImpressionsImprovement scale and positive trends in affective rating scales) suggest that the novel psychostimulant modafinil might be a useful augmentation treatment for depressive patients who are partially responsive or nonresponsive...

Cataplexy is a hallmark of narcolepsy characterized by the sudden onset of muscle weakness or paralysis during wakefulness. It can occur spontaneously but is typically triggered by positive emotions like laughter. Although cataplexy was identified over 130 years ago, its neural mechanism remains unclear. Here, we show that a newly identified GABA circuit within the central nucleus of the amygda...

UNLABELLED This study was thought to characterized clinical and laboratory findings of a narcoleptic patients in an out patients unit at São Paulo, Brazil. METHOD 28 patients underwent polysomnographic recordings (PSG) and Multiple Sleep Latency Test (MSLT) were analyzed according to standard criteria. The analysis of HLADQB1*0602 allele was performed by PCR. The Hypocretin-1 in cerebral spin...

Plasma orexin-A in patients with narcolepsy ranged from 11 to 25 pg/ml, and the mean (^SD) plasma orexin-A levels of narcoleptic subjects, 20.83 (^4.34) pg/ml, were significantly lower (t 1⁄4 4:55, d.f. 1⁄4 34, P , 0:0001) than that of the control group (range 20–33 pg/ml; 26.67 ^ 3.23 pg/ml). There was no relationship between plasma orexin-A concentrations and age, gender, body mass index, age...