August 6, 2008

Laugh then collapse

There is a rare condition known as cataplexy, where if the patient experiences any sudden or strong emotions, such as laughing can quite simply collapse. This is can be very embarrassing as well a dangerous and is connected with the sleeping disease narcolepsy, where the patient can suddenly and without any warning fall asleep.

There are no cures for either of these conditions yet, but researchers in sleep disorders at Leicester General Hospital are studying the subject, but they say that science has found both of these disorders very difficult to treat, as they cannot really find the actual cause or triggers.

These are known as extreme conditions, but the thirty thousand sufferers of narcolepsy in the UK and it is believed that out of these patients around seventy per cent will also suffer from cataplexy.

Source [Telegraph]