narcolepsy/tyrosine

Narcolepsy is a disorder characterized by the sudden urge to sleep. The biochemical etiology of this disorder is believed to be due to dopamine abnormalities. Since the precursor of dopamine is L-tyrosine, the administration of this amino acid may prove beneficial in the treatment of narcolepsy.

8 patients with narcolepsy were treated with oral tyrosine. Within six months all were free from daytime sleep attacks and cataplexy.

A randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of L-tyrosine was done in ten subjects with narcolepsy and cataplexy. Of twenty-eight visual analogue scales rating mood and arousal, the subjects' ratings in the tyrosine treatment (9 g daily) and placebo periods differed significantly for only

This report describes the prospective follow-up of a 2-year-old child with narcolepsy. The initial clinical diagnosis was confirmed by the onset of cataplexy when the child was 5 years old. He does not have the HLA genotype characteristic of narcolepsy or an identifiable brain lesion, although he

That l-dopa represents a major advance in Parkinson treatment should not hide that a number of problems remain unanswered: on-off effects, transient improvements... Based on the beneficial effects of l-tyrosine in dopamine dependent depressions and narcolepsy, five naive patients diagnosed after

The neuropeptide hypocretin, also known as orexin, has been implicated in waking since its deletion leads to the sleep disorder narcolepsy. Hypocretin neurons project to major arousal areas, and in an effort to determine which region is responsible for the changes in sleep-wake architecture we have

The Hypocretin1/OrexinA (Hcrt1/OxA) neuropeptides are found in a group of posterolateral hypothalamus neurons and are involved in sleep-wakefulness cycle regulation. Hcrt1/OxA neurons project widely to brainstem aminergic structures, such as the locus coeruleus (LC), which are involved in

Canine narcolepsy is a unique experimental model of a human sleep disorder characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness and cataplexy. There is a consensus recognition of an imbalance between cholinergic and catecholaminergic systems in narcolepsy although the underlying mechanisms remain poorly

OBJECTIVE Sleep disturbance, which is characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness and sleep attacks, is frequently observed in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). Loss of orexin neurons in hypothalamus and the resultant decreased level of orexin in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) found in narcolepsy