NIJMEGEN, Netherlands, Mar 5, 2008 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Most patients with
narcolepsy/cataplexy -- excessive day sleepiness/sleep paralysis -- experience
several symptoms of eating disorders, a Dutch study says.
Study authors Dr. Hal Droogleever Fortuyn and Dr. Sebastiaan Overeem of the
Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center in the Netherlands, focused on 60
patients with narcolepsy/cataplexy who were recruited from specialized sleep
centers and 120 healthy controls.
The study, published in the journal Sleep, finds 23.3 percent of the
narcolepsy/cataplexy patients fulfilled the criteria for a clinical eating
disorder, compared to none of the control subjects. Half of the patients
reported a persistent craving for food, as well as binge eating and 25 percent
of patients reported binging at least twice a week.
"These data make it clear that narcolepsy is not just a sleeping disorder, but a
hypothalamic disease with a much broader symptom profile," Fortuyn says in a
statement. "Hypocretin, the neurotransmitter that is lost in narcolepsy, has
been implicated in the regulation of feeding through animal studies."
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