[Advances in the psychopharmacological management of the narcoleptic patient]

Sleep attacks, cataplexy, sleep paralysis and hypnagogic hallucinations are the cardinal signs of narcolepsy. However most patients present only with sleep attacks at disease onset. Animal and human studies on the psychopharmacology and neurochemistry of narcolepsy, suggest abnormalities on rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Thus, most drugs used on its treatment, such as tricyclic antidepressants and psychostimulant agents, are aimed to reduce REM sleep. However, there is growing evidence that some drugs that can alleviate fragmentation of sleep rather than suppress REM sleep can also be clinically effective for this condition. The authors review the subject and comment on their experience with clonidine, an imidazoline derivative marketed as an antihypertensive agent, and suggest that REM suppression is not always necessary for narcoleptics to improve.