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Anything can co-exist, but Narcolepsy is rare

Posted by utopizen on August 7, 2005, at 8:08:00

In reply to Can Narcolepsy ADHD Co-exist??, posted by NARCOLEPTIC on August 4, 2005, at 22:11:14

> Are there variants of narcolepsy like varying degress subtypes??

Narcolepsy is called by my doc as a "wastebasket diagnosis." I tried Xyrem for my sleepiness, and it left me anxiety in the AM, didn't reduce sleepiness, caused vomitting, and severe depression, as well as insomnia. It's very poorly treatable anyhow, even if you did have it.

Fewer than 150,000 people with Narcolepsy exist in the U.S. That makes it an orphan disease.

If someone thinks they have narcolepsy, without having a sleep study proving this, the odds are you don't.

You might have the very common cause of sleepiness called "sleep apnea" (which can affect you even if you're skinny because some people have small airways).

More often than not, and even if you have some sleep apnea, the major factor of sleepiness is mood disorder. Specifically, atypical depression is the likely culprit.

Narcolepsy is extremely rare, and you would know if you had it.

That said, to answer your question, SLEEP APNEA + AD/HD are very common combinations, and my pulmonary specialist (pulmonologist) treats me for both using Provigil and Straterra. He says they have a synergistic effect in patients with both.


Ignore obsessing over your disorder's name, and focus on working with your doc to get a sleep study and just take the Provigil, stimulant, and up your dose on an antidepressant agressively to rule out the possibility it's mood-related.

You have a better luck at winning the lottery than getting dx'd for narcolepsy. You'd have to fall asleep in fewer than 5 minutes every two hours, staying awake for those two hours forcefully by the clinician evaluating you all day long, and you'd have to enter REM sleep within those 5 minutes.

Narcolepsy does exist, but for every one legitmate case, there's 1,000 people using it to fool themselves into thinking their sleepiness is unrelated to a mood disorder because they haven't experienced depression yet. Trust me, I did the same myself.

Antidepressants are necessary for anyone with true narcolepsy anyhow, since it's not realistic to think a narcolepetic doesn't suffer from depression because of their inability to remain alert during the day.


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poster:utopizen thread:537659
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050803/msgs/538626.html