In 2014, the International Classification of Sleep Disorders listed narcolepsy (type 2) and narcolepsy with cataplexy (type 1) as separate disorders. The word “idiopathic” means that the disease is of unknown cause.ĭespite many earlier researchers’ assertions, it was not until around 1970 that doctors confirmed that narcolepsy and epilepsy were two different conditions. Idiopathic hypersomnia is a related sleep disorder in which a person is excessively sleepy throughout the day, even with a good night’s rest. The MSLT is widely used to diagnose and differentiate between the different types of narcolepsy and idiopathic hypersomnia. The MSLT is a sleep study that tracks how fast a person falls asleep in a quiet setting during daytime hours. In the mid-1970s, the multiple sleep latency test (MSLT), or daytime nap study, was used as diagnostic criteria for narcolepsy. Christian Guilleminault joined Stanford in 1970 to study sleep-disordered breathing, and the two researchers opened the Sleep Medicine Center that year. William Dement opened the first narcolepsy clinic at Stanford in 1964, though it closed the following year. Gerald Vogel was the first to discover that disordered REM sleep played a role in giving rise to narcolepsy.Īlthough physicians in France and Germany first described narcolepsy in the late 19th century, much of the scientific research into the condition was conducted at Stanford University almost a century later. It was not until this shift in sleep research that the concept of narcolepsy as a physiological condition was accepted. REM sleep is the deep, dream state of the standard person’s sleep cycle. Researchers Eugene Aserinsky and Nathaniel Kleitman’s discovery of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep in 1953 introduced sleep medicine, somnology, and sleep research in its modern-day context. Even today, the Center for Narcolepsy at Stanford University’s School of Medicine is housed within the school’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. In the early 20th century, the prevailing scientific understanding for narcolepsy with cataplexy was based in psychiatry and psychoanalysis. Research suggests that more than half of people living with narcolepsy developed the condition before they turned 18 years old. Narcolepsy is said to usually - but not exclusively - present in children, adolescents, and young adults. Most of these early descriptions of narcolepsy syndrome align with the symptoms that characterize narcolepsy as we know it today. Jean-Baptiste-Edouard Gelineau (in 1880) and German physicians Karl Friedrich Otto Westphal (in 1877) and Franz Fischer (in 1878) documented the first official case reports of narcolepsy. Thomas Willis, often known as “the founder of neuroanatomy,” described these symptoms in one of his patients. The first written account of a disorder fitting the description of a narcoleptic syndrome is from the 1600s. Lowenfeld coined the term “ cataplexy.” Cataplexy originates from the Greek word “kataplexis,” meaning “fixation of the eyes” or “stupefaction.” It was first used in a paper Lowenfeld published describing sudden sleep onset with episodes of muscle weakness triggered by emotions, usually laughter. Its root lies in the French word “narcolepsie.” “ Narcolepsie” comes from the Greek words “narke,” meaning “numbness or a stupor” (e.g., narcotic), and “lepsis” or “lepsy,” meaning “an attack or seizure” (e.g., epilepsy). The word “ narcolepsy” was coined by a French physician named Jean-Baptiste-Edouard Gelineau in 1880. Etymology of Narcolepsy and CataplexyĮtymology is the study of a word’s origin and how the meaning of that word has changed over time. Successful treatment for this condition also includes behavioral and lifestyle changes. Treatments for narcolepsy may include a variety of medications, such as amphetamine-like stimulants, antidepressants, and modafinil. It is very rare for a person with narcolepsy to have all four of the above symptoms.Īlthough there is currently no cure for narcolepsy, there are a number of treatment options available.
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