Teasing apart drug treatments and individual symptoms in narcolepsy.

摘要

The issue has been raised whether Selegiline is an effective anti-cataplectic agent. Selegiline has been found to be useful as an alertness enhancing agent for narcolepsy [1,2]. In our study we were impressed by the objective effects of Selegiline in improving alertness, as judged by the maintenance of wakefulness test, but did not comment on its effect on cataplexy as we were never under the impression that it was a major contributor to cataplexy. There are, however, two published papers which suggests that Selegiline may be helpful in cataplexy. The first paper suggested that in addition to alertness improving at doses above 20 mg daily, there was an improvement in cataplexy recorded by questionnaire [3]. Although the paper states daytime sleepiness improved significantly and the number of sleep attacks, naps and frequency of cataplexy were reduced, no data is given on the cataplexy issues. The second paper suggests that there was a decrease in levels of sleepiness at the same time as a reduction in the number of cataplexy attacks [4].