Center for Narcolepsy
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Narcolepsy is a serious medical disorder and a key to understanding other sleep disorders. Narcolepsy is a disabling illness affecting more than 1 in 2,000 Americans. Most individuals with the disorder are not diagnosed and are thus not treated. The disease is principally characterized by a permanent and overwhelming feeling of sleepiness and fatigue. Other symptoms involve abnormalities of dreaming sleep, such as dream-like hallucinations and finding oneself physically weak or paralyzed for a few seconds (see Symptoms).
Founded in the early 1970s by Dr. William Dement, the Stanford University Sleep Clinic was the first medical clinic ever established to specialize in sleep disorders. The clinic diagnoses and treats patients who have difficulties falling asleep or staying asleep at night, problems with excessive daytime sleepiness or other medical problems occurring during sleep.
The Stanford Center for Narcolepsy was established in the 1980s as part of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Today, it is the world leader in narcolepsy research with more than 100 articles on narcolepsy to its name. The Stanford Center for Narcolepsy was the first to report that narcolepsy-cataplexy is caused by hypocretin (orexin) abnormalities in both animal models and humans (see FAQ and publications).
Under the direction of Drs. Emmanuel Mignot and Seiji Nishino, the Stanford Center for Narcolepsy today treats several hundred patients with the disorder each year, many of whom participate in various research protocols. Other research protocols are conducted in animal models of narcolespy.
We are always looking for volunteers in our narcolepsy research studies. We are presently recruiting narcoleptic patients for genetic studies, drug clinical trials, hypocretin measurement studies in the CSF and functional MRI studies. If you are interested in participating, you can contact us either on our site's message page or telephoning Ms. Mali Einen, Research Coordinator at (650) 725-6512. The first step will be to complete a Stanford Sleep Inventory. You can either request a copy of the Inventory from Ms. Einen, download a .pdf version that you can mail to us, or take the Inventory online. The survey is long and can take up to an hour to complete. Completing the survey does not mean that you have been entered into one of our studies. Please do not contact us in regards to the online survey, it is meant mainly as a convenience to our existing study participants.
Monetary gifts to the Center for Narcolepsy are welcome.
If you wish to make the ultimate gift, please consider participating in our Brain Donation Program.
