Cataplexy symptoms and treatment

Cataplexy is a sleeping disorder often affecting patients who also suffer from  which is a disease with symptoms like excessive sleepiness in the day, sudden sleep attacks and disturbances to the normal nightly sleep.

The name Cataplexy is (as usual with diseases) of Greek origin. Kata means being down and a stroke is called plexis in Greek. Cataplexy also goes under the medical name Henneberg syndrome. The condition have symptoms such as weakness in the musculature - ranging from only a small loosening of the muscles in the face, to maybe jawdropping, difficulty to keep the head up, knee weakness and ultimately an outright collapse. With Cataplexy, speech is often affected and there are eyesight problems such as difficulty in focusing. Hearing seems to be unaffected and so does the general awareness. Cataplexy seizures seem to be triggered by strong emotions, these can be of any kind such as surprise, fear, laughter, anger.

Cataplexy symptoms

The condition of Cataplexy is also often found in patients with narcolepsy (attacks of sleepiness in the daytime). Cataplexy symptoms can be confused with the condition of having epilepsy with its similar seizures, however here triggered by other things (flashes etc). Despite the similarity to epilepsy and narcolepsy, cataplexy is a different disorder and it needs different treatment and medication. It is often treated with a form of GHB called Xyrem.

Cataplexy can be more severe if the patient is already tired and it can trigger an anxiety attack as well. On the other way around though - anxiety does not trigger cataplexy. An attack of cataplexy can often last a few minutes or more (severe cases of cataplexy).