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Narcolepsy Informative Speech

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Did you know that one in six people have at least one neurological disorder? And of those cases 5 percent are misdiagnosed. One of them being narcolepsy. Narcolepsy is a neurological disorder that is not rare but is often misdiagnosed. Today, I will talk about what narcolepsy is,the causes, the symptoms, and the treatments for narcolepsy. Firstly, what is narcolepsy? Narcolepsy is a neurological disorder that effects your central nervous system that does not allow the person to have a regulated sleep cycle. A regular person normally has a 90 minute sleep cycle, while a narcoleptic goes straight into REM sleep. Since they go straight into REM sleep, the brain does not have a chance to recover from its constant activities. A narcoleptics…show more content…
There are four main narcolepsy symptoms. The first symptom being cataplexy. As we talk briefly about cataplexy earlier, cataplexy is the sudden loss of muscle or paralysis. Cataplexy is the most common symptom among narcoleptics. Also, cataplexy occurs during the waking hours. A second symptom is excessive daytime sleepiness, or EDS. EDS affects daily activities, and can lead to other health issues. The third symptom is hallucinations. For narcoleptics these hallucinations are extremely vivid. I have a personal experience with hallucinations because my brother has narcolepsy. He was at school one day, and he felt bugs were crawling all over him and trying to crawl into his skin. Consequently, he stripped off all of his clothes trying to get the bugs off of him. Since he was at school, they called an ambulance. Once the ambulance arrived, they put IVs in his arm and he yanked them out because he thought they were snakes slithering into his arm. As he was still riding in the ambulance, his mother was sitting next to him and he shouted at the ambulance driver to speed up because someone was shooting at them. My brother felt that was really happening. He thought he saw that happening as real as you and I are. The last symptom of narcolepsy is sleep paralysis. Sleep paralysis is when one person is awake, yet they can not move. When you are in sleep paralysis, it is like you are in REM sleep. Normally happens when a narcoleptic is…show more content…
While there is no cure for narcolepsy, there are treatments to make managing symptoms easier. There are three treatments for narcolepsy. According to Mayo Clinic, there are three treatments for narcolepsy. The first being selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) or Serotonin and Norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs). These treatments can subdue the REM sleep, to help with the other symptoms. The second treatment is antidepressants. They are only effective for cataplexy but can have dangerous side effects. The last treatment is Sodium Oxybate (Xyrem). Xyrem is one of the most effective treatments for Narcolepsy. Xyrem improves nighttime sleep, which in turn improves the excessive daytime sleepiness and cataplexy. Currently over 60,000 people are prescribed Xyrem. However, Xyrem can be very detrimental. Xyrem can cause coma or death if mixed with alcohol or other
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