Narcolepsy – A sleep disorder with some psychiatric features

Dr. Douglass is a psychiatrist and also a fully-qualified specialist in sleep disorders medicine. During over 30 years of practice, he has assembled a series of patient histories showing that some patients with narcolepsy have psychiatric symptoms. Narcolepsy is a treatable but rare neurological disorder of the brain’s sleep-wake control system. The illness usually starts suddenly in boys and girls between the ages of 13 – 18 and can be mistaken for depression, attention deficit disorder, or even schizophrenia in its early stages. Fortunately, accurate laboratory diagnosis and effective medication treatment are available.