Narcolepsy Clinical Trials

Narcolepsy is a chronic disabling neurologic disorder mainly characterised by excessive daytime sleepiness. Type 1 narcolepsy is associated with a deficit of hypocretin in the cerebrospinal fluid responsible for the cataplexy symptom while type 2 shows a normal hypocretin level and no cataplexy. While the development of narcolepsy is independent of parental social level, narcolepsy has a significant influence on educational level, grading, social outcome, and welfare consequences. Several studies assessed global cognition efficiency, mood, and attention in narcoleptic patients but only a few specifically measured social cognition and mostly without a control group. In a population of narcoleptics children, a severe impairment in social cognition is described for 20% of the group, contrary to 2 % for the control group. The literature also depicts some impairments in decision making, somatic and cognitive emotions responses but the emotion recognition seems to be preserved. A better understanding of the social and cognitive aspects of narcolepsy could lead to a better treatment of the disease in its entirety, including if relevant specific cognitive behavioural therapy. The protocol consists in a psychometric evaluation including several questionnaires in order to assess social cognition. It will be proposed to patients with type 1 or type 2 narcolepsy and patients with idiopathic hypersomnia.