DO YOU KNOW WHAT NARCOLEPSY IS?

In the Article “ Diagnosing narcolepsy with cataplexy on history alone: challenging the International Classification of Sleep Disorders (ICSD-2) criteria”, Morrison, J. et al. argues that the second version of the International Classification of sleep disorders suggests narcolepsy with cataplexy can be diagnosed on history alone.

The Narcolepsy specialists claim that there are two types of narcolepsy; narcolepsy with cataplexy (muscle weakening) and narcolepsy without cataplexy. The symptoms of narcolepsy are rarely recorded in past history, but some cases can be found. Adults can live most of their lives with narcolepsy without knowing it, but with them not knowing it can be very dangerous and can lead to inappropriate long term management.

The Narcolepsy specialists develop this claim by first conducting an experiment on five patients with a history supportive of narcolepsy with cataplexy. Only two cases were accepted to be narcoleptic. The specialists investigates by multiple sleep latency testing looking for symptoms associated with the narcolepsy patients. The Narcolepsy specialists explore the patients excessive daytime somnolence (eds.), sleep disordered breathing (SBD), and their rapid eye movement(REM).

Lastly, they start to initiate therapy to exclude other narcolepsy-like conditions. The narcolepsy specialists purpose  was for the recognition of the various narcoleptic symptoms to improve patient safety in order to avoid further development of symptoms such as rapid eye movement, excessive daytime somnolence, cataplexy, sleep-disordered breathing ect., that could be harmful and life threatening. Also to avoid further development of  those symptoms and to motivate narcoleptic patients to immediately refer to specialists to confirm the diagnosis of narcolepsy or narcolepsy with cataplexy.

This work is significant because people with narcolepsy at a young age can live with it until they become adults, by then they will start having severe symptoms that can cause heart damage and will cause them to have a harder time living with narcolepsy. Narcolepsy can be very dangerous  to live with, it can cause danger to whoever has it and to the people surrounded by them. Most people with narcolepsy do not find out they have narcolepsy until they have cause a car accident by falling asleep behind the wheel. 

 

Works Cited

Morrison, I.Bušková, J.Nevšimalová, S.Douglas, N. J.Riha, R. L. "Diagnosing Narcolepsy With Cataplexy On History Alone: Challenging The International Classification Of Sleep Disorders (ICSD-2) Criteria." European Journal Of Neurology 18.7 (2011): 1017. Advanced Placement Source. Web. 5 Oct. 2012.