Narcolepsy affects 25,000 people in Spain.

– is one of the causes of excessive daytime sleepiness

-diagnosis is late because sleepiness is not perceived as an indicator of disease

Madrid, March of 2013- the last 16 and 17 March took place in Madrid the 4th European Conference of narcolepsya meeting of some leading international specialists of this pathology, that was about the most relevant issues, such as genetic factors, childhood narcolepsy, therapy or the means to assess the lack of sleep, and held on the occasion of the European day of narcolepsy, March 18. Also, was a meeting between European associations composed of those affected by this disease. The small Amphitheatre of the Medical College of the capital hosted the Scientific Conference (Saturday, 16 March) and the Hall of the Foundation ONCE hosted the day of the patient (Sunday, 17 March) the President of the Organizing Committee is Dr. rose Peraita-AdradosHead of the unit of sleep disorders and epilepsy of the Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón, and Manuel Martínez Torrejón, President of the Spanish Association of narcolepsy (AEN), has been the organizer of the day of the patient.

Narcolepsy is a disorder characterized by overwhelming bouts of sleep and Cataplexy attacks triggered by emotions, among other symptoms and is, according to the NEA, is one of the causes of excessive daytime sleepiness diagnosed by dream centres after the failure of dreamintake of drugs, alcohol, sleep apnoea sleep. studies on narcolepsy say an incidence in Europe, Japan and the United States between the 0.2 and 1.6 per thousand. It’s a similar to the multiple sclerosis incidence, but from the NEA, they point out that the diagnosis is late, average about 10 years, because sleepiness is not perceived as an indication of disease.

In addition to excessive sleepiness during the day, narcolepsy is characterized by sleep paralysis and hypnagogic hallucinations. The first symptom is related to the sudden inability of the patient not to move for a few minutes. The second, is experiencing hallucinations multi sensorial, auditory or Visual, while you doze or to awakening from the dream. And finally, the cataplexy is a sudden episode of muscle weakness, usually caused by emotions, whether positive (laughter) as negative (anger, stress) that can only affect the muscles of the face and neck, or all the muscles so the patient bend you knees and reach fall to the ground…

For the diagnosis of narcolepsy exist, in addition to medical history and background, specific laboratory tests. Although the onset of symptoms facilitates the diagnosis of this disease, the fact that these appear staggered may hinder it. Therefore a test at a clinic specializing in sleep disorders, consisting of a polygraph record of nocturnal sleep followed by the so-called test of multiple sleep latency (MSLT), which can confirm the sleepiness during the day is recommended from the AEN.