March 5, 2012, 3:28 pm
Too Often, Doctors Overlook Narcolepsy
By JANE E. BRODY
[snip]
Studies suggest that narcolepsy is far more common than most doctors realize. The Center for Narcolepsy at Stanford University estimates that the condition affects one person in 2,000. Most cases are undiagnosed and untreated. Misdiagnosis is very common, as well, with narcolepsy mistaken for laziness, depression, schizophrenia or an attention disorder.
[snip]
Symptoms generally first appear, as they did for Clea, in adolescence or early adulthood, often following an environmental event, like a viral infection. Scientists have traced narcolepsy?s underpinnings to the autoimmune destruction of about 70,000 brain cells that normally produce a neurotransmitter called hypocretin...
