Narcolepsy is a rare neurological disease, lasting the whole life. It belongs to the group of hypersomnia. Narcolepsy can’t be cured but is not life threatening.
People suffering under narcolepsy suddenly are stricken by a sleeping attack, during talking, eating, at the working place or in the subway, for example. In the US, it is estimated that 200,000 people suffer under narcolepsy, but the estimated number is relatively high. This is because the process of diagnosis is long and often lasts a couple of years. Men and women are affected the same way.
Most of the time, narcolepsy occurs in the age between 10 and 20 resp. 30 and 40 years. 20 % of people concerned already suffer in childhood under this disease. There can either be an insidious development of the symptoms of the disease or the symptoms may appear abruptly. Often, living quality of people suffering under narcolepsy is very impaired, many of them are not able to pursue a career.
In medicine three forms of narcolepsy are distinguished:
- Narcolepsy with cataplexy (muscle relaxation) – classical narcolepsy
- Narcolepsy without cataplexy
- Secondary narcolepsy (due to injury of the hypothalamus or brain stem as consequence of an inadequate blood supply, tumor or neurosarcoidosis, for example)
Learn more about narcolepsy in # 2
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