[Narcolepsy and the psychiatric tableau. A specific form of narcolepsy?]

Narcolepsy is a well-known hypersomnia. Nevertheless narcolepsy in which the hallucinatory component is unusually prominent may lead to a false diagnosis of schizophrenia syndrome. This aspect is illustrated by the case of Miss B. who appears like a psychotic patient without dissociation syndrome and with a hysterical personality. Are the narcoleptics with psychiatric disorders a peculiar sub-type of narcolepsy? Fourty-five percent of our eleven narcoleptics patients have an associated psychiatric disorder. Most of them are depressive. Surprisingly fourty percent of our patients are non-DR2 at the Human Leucocyte Antigen typing. Furthermore seventy five percent of them have an associated psychiatric disorder. This would mean a peculiar sub-type of narcolepsy.