[Obesity and hypersomnia]

Seventy one patients with hypersomniac paroxysms--Pickwickian and Kleine-Levin syndromes, were studied, the incidence of combination of hypersomnia and obesity--followed up. They are supposed to have common pathogenetic mechanisms, giving weight to lesions of hypothalamo-reticulo-limbic structures in viral infections, craniocerebral traumas, intoxications and tumours. The pathological processes advanced in the reticulo-hypothalamo-hypophyseal region lead to hormonal regulatory disorders and disturbances in adaptation and compensatory mechanisms of metabolism, of lipid metabolism including, of sleep and vigilance. A schematic central explanation of the inter-relations of obesity and hypersomnias is presented.