This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Reply to article  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

I. Clinical and Electrophysiologic Characteristics

Anthony Kales, MD; Roger J. Cadieux, MD; Constantin R. Soldatos, MD; Edward O. Bixler, PhD; Paula K. Schweitzer, PhD; William T. Prey, MD; Antonio Vela-Bueno, MD

Arch Neurol. 1982;39(3):164-168.

Abstract
• The development, clinical course, and electrophysiologic characteristics of narcolepsy were evaluated in 50 adults who had a current complaint of sleep attacks and cataplexy. In most of the patients, the first symptoms, usually excessive daytime sleepiness and sleep attacks, developed during childhood or adolescence. The condition was invariably chronic. Patients frequently had family histories of some disorder of excessive daytime sleepiness. In nocturnal sleep or daytime nap recordings, all but three of the patients demonstrated a rapid-eyemovement (REM) period at sleep onset. Sleep apnea was found in only one patient. Our findings indicate that sleep laboratory recordings to detect a sleep-onset REM period are of little diagnostic value when the narcoleptic patient has cataplexy. Furthermore, narcoleptic patients require sleep laboratory evaluation for sleep apnea only when the presence of apnea is suggested by the sleep history.

Author Affiliations
From the Department of Psychiatry and the Sleep Research and Treatment Center (Drs Kales, Cadieux, Soldatos, Bixler, Schweitzer, and Vela-Bueno), The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Hershey; and the Department of Psychiatry (Dr Prey), UCLA Center for Health Sciences.

Footnotes
Accepted for publication June 6, 1981.

Reprint requests to Sleep Research and Treatment Center, The Pennsylvania State University, Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, PA 17033 (Dr Kales).

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Narcolepsy in a Pediatric Population
Young et al.
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 1988;142:210-213.
ABSTRACT  

Sleep Disorders: Sleep Apnea and Narcolepsy
KALES et al.
ANN INTERN MED 1987;106:434-443.
ABSTRACT  

Sleep in the Prader-Willi Syndrome: Clinical and Polygraphic Findings
Vela-Bueno et al.
Arch Neurol 1984;41:294-296.
ABSTRACT