Psychometric profiles of patient populations with excessive daytime sleepiness

Patients with narcolepsy have more psychiatric symptoms than normal controls as measured by psychometric tests. However, it is unclear whether these findings are specific to narcolepsy, as some studies have suggested, or related to excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) or to chronic illness. We compared a group of 56 narcoleptics to age- and sex-matched controls with EDS. A group of 48 individuals with normal sleep architecture was also used as an additional control group. Both the narcoleptic group and the EDS-control group had significantly greater scores on Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory scales but were not different from each other. Our data suggest that the psychopathology associated with narcolepsy is not specific and may be generalized among patients with disorders of excessive sleepiness.