Definition:
Gelineau disease, otherwise called narcolepsy, is a neurological disorder that causes excessive daytime sleepiness or EDS. The patient may experience disturbed sleep, which might be mistaken for insomnia or other rapid-eye movement (REM) disorders.
Diagnosis:
Gelineau disease is easily diagnosed when all symptoms are present. In the absence of all the symptoms, sleep specialists perform either a polysomnogram or a multiple sleep latency test.
Treatment:
Treatment for Gelineau disease includes both drug and sleep therapy. For drug therapy, the patient's drowsiness is treated using stimulants such as methylpehnidate or modafinil. As for sleep therapy, patients are instructed to take about two to three scheduled naps during the day for durations of 10 to 15 minutes in addition to getting a good night's rest.
Symptoms and Signs:
Excessive Daytime Sleepiness (EDS), the first symptom, means that a narcoleptic may feel drowsy and fall asleep at any time during the day. Other usual symptoms of narcolepsy include cataplexy, which can be felt as loss of muscle control or complete collapse. Other classic symptoms are sleeping paralysis, or temporary incapacity to move when waking, and hypnogogic hallucinations or frightening pseudo-dreams that happen before dozing off or awakening. The fifth classic symptoms is automatic behavior, which is when a person performs physical tasks but wakes up unable to recall the performance of such tasks.
Causes:
While the causes of Gelineau disease have yet to be determined, studies show that genetic conditions, like variations in HLA genes (otherwise known as Chromosome 6) are associated with an increased risk of suffering from the disorder.
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