[Narcolepsy: current view]

Narcolepsy is a primary sleep disorder which may or may not arise associated with catalepsy. It is a relatively frequent disease with 2 peaks of appearance in childhood and in young adulthood. It has genetic components which do not seem sufficient for its demonstration. It often depends on the environment and its clinical picture can be very variable, particularly in children. It is thus under-diagnosed and often confused with other diseases. In this short review of the literature we discuss: narcolepsy's history, clinical evaluation, diagnoses criteria, patient's history, clinical status and complementary examinations, clinical picture in the child and in the teenager, epidemiology, neurobiology, differential diagnoses, symptomatic narcolepsy, current treatments and internet sites of reference.