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Content about narcolepsy

06.24.09
What Is Narcolepsy? What Causes Narcolepsy?

Narcolepsy - from the French narcolepsie, which was derived from the Greek narke meaning numbness and lepsis meaning attack or seizure - is a chronic sleep disorder where the brain is unable to regulate the body's sleep-wake cycles. People with narcolepsy may feel an overwhelming urge to sleep at various points in the day, and they will often fall asleep spontaneously for a few seconds to a few minutes.

05.03.09
Discovery of gene associated with narcolepsy

Scientists funded by the National Institutes of Health have identified a gene associated with narcolepsy, a disorder that causes disabling daytime sleepiness, sleep attacks, irresistible bouts of sleep that can strike at any time, and disturbed sleep at night. The gene has a known role in the immune system, which strongly suggests that autoimmunity, in which the immune system turns against the body's own tissues, plays an important role in the disorder.

03.17.09
Drug being used to improve cognition affects dopamine, suggesting potential for abuse

Preliminary research in healthy men suggests that the narcolepsy drug modafinil, increasingly being used to enhance cognitive abilities, affects the activity of dopamine in the brain in a way that may create the potential for abuse and dependence, according to a study in the March 18 issue of JAMA.