The treatment of excessive somnolence with stimulant drugs

Controlling the symptom of excessive sleepiness is an important responsibility of sleep medicine. Our group has reported that methamphetamine, given in the morning at doses of 40-60 mg, allowed narcoleptics to function throughout the day at normal levels of sleep tendency and psychomotor functioning as measured by multiple sleep latency and performance testing. These findings are important because they are the first to show normalization of function in narcolepsy with pharmacotherapy and because the dose of stimulant utilized was more than twice the maximum recommended by the manufacturer. Because it is possible to essentially eliminate the disabling sleepiness of narcolepsy, at least in the short term, we suggest that the following principles be applied in the therapeutic use of stimulant drugs: 1) Pathological sleepiness warrants aggressive treatment when sustained alertness is necessary for individual or public safety; 2) Stimulant drugs are important in the therapeutic approach to patients with pathological sleepiness; 3) The prime goal, although sometimes unachievable, should be symptom-free daytime functioning. It is important that, during therapy, a period of symptom-free daytime functioning be achieved for a frame of reference for evaluating future treatments; 4) Treatment efficacy should be assessed periodically with objective techniques such as the multiple sleep latency test or the maintenance of wakefulness test; 5) In some cases, stimulant doses may exceed the manufacturer's recommendations. However, the clinician should be guided by the prime goal of therapy, the patient's needs and the patient's ability to tolerate the chosen therapy.