Talk:Cataplexy

Cataplexy and Sound

Can cataplexy be caused by sound? (asked someone who didn't bother signing.)

Possibly, if that sound triggers an intense emotion within a person. Cataplexy usually happens to people if they experience an emotion, ranging from mild to intense. When it first starts, it may only happen if you find something extremely funny or if you become angry or upset. If the condition worsens over time, it may happen during the feeling of any type of emotion. It may start happening in small term on its own, without even a trigger. My experience went this way. Others may be different. (replied PWN who also forgot to sign.)

The picture of a boy is really informative. (noted someone else who didn't sign.)

True. I've taken it out. -- Derek Ross | Talk 19:03, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

I have had a cataplexy attack tiggered by sound. It was terrible audio feedback on a TV. I dropped like a stone. It is the only time I have had this happen. (Justnz (talk) 02:05, 6 May 2008 (UTC))

This article doesn't give causes for the disease TommyMo7 (talk) 00:16, 19 September 2011 (UTC)TommyMo7

Modafinil for Cataplexy?

Hello, I'm new to this so I hope I'm doing it correctly. At the end of the article is the line "Cataplexy can also be treated by a non Amphetamine alternative called Modafinil." I do not think that Modafinil (Provigil) is labeled to treat cataplexy, it is for Excessive Daytime Sleepiness only. Synexis 15:00, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Agreed...Drug Facts and Comparisons 2007 does not list cataplexy as an indication for modafinil (either on or off label), and AHFS Drug Information 2007 states that modafinil has been show to be ineffective in the treatment of cataplexy (narcoleptics who take modafinil for EDS usually require an additional medication for cataplexy, when present and severe enough). I've removed that statement. SheepNotGoats 15:13, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

Completely inappropriate opening paragraph

This article's first paragraph is as follows:

"Cataplexy is a medical condition which often affects people who have narcolepsy, a disorder whose principal signs are EDS (Excessive Daytime Sleepiness), sleep attacks, sleep paralysis, hypnagogic hallucinations[1] and disturbed night-time sleep. Cataplexy is sometimes confused with epilepsy, where a series of flashes or other stimuli cause superficially similar seizures. Cataplexy can also present as a side effect of SSRI Discontinuation Syndrome."

And incidentally, here is the rest of the opening section:

"The term cataplexy originates from the Greek "kata", meaning down, and plexis, meaning a stroke or seizure."

Having edited about 600 Wikipedia articles, I have never read an opening that is quite as inappropriate as this one. IT DOES NOT SAY WHAT CATAPLEXY IS.Daqu (talk) 01:58, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

I heartily second this motion, and further add that A) wrongdiagnosis.com is HARDLY a high-quality source, B) no mention of causes is made [see below], as in most other bonafide medical/research articles [even though this was minimally available from the aforementioned site], C) the use of "rare disease", in this context, without further qualification, misleads the reader into classifying it along with cirrhosis, etc., as opposed to the neurological disorder [or more likely symptom of another disorder] which it is.

The sentence, "Cataplexy is sometimes confused with epilepsy, where a series of flashes or other stimuli cause superficially similar seizures." contradicts numerous articles here, there, and everywhere that cataplexy is either a sub-type of epilepsy in itself, or a symptom of several sub-types, born out by

a) very nearly the remainder of all facts set forth in this particular article, with respect to the long-known actions and symptoms of epilepsy and their presentation,

b) the MAO inhibitors and anti-depressants listed or alluded to in the article are also responsible for the same results when used to treat certain epilepsy forms∗, and

c) the fact that with regard to narcolepsy itself

i) it is a neurological sleep disorder with the same areas of the brain affected as in the similar presentations of certain seizure-types,

ii) according to proper scientific procedures [as opposed to medical bungling] the fact that the HLA complex variations were not always present should have precluded this hypothesis from being considered an actual fact,

iii) the hypocretin-link can also rather easily point to the effects of several epileptic-type disorders (or to a number of glandular disorders, or to an obscure birth-defect unrelated to the HLA variation, or possibly even to mild strokes suffered during very early childhood),

iv) the exact causes of cataplexy, narcolepsy, or any form of epilepsy IS NOT absolutely known--while the presence of the lesions is a given [epilepsy], so are the abnormal neural impulses, either of which could easily cause the other, or both could be caused by another undiscovered factor.

In any case, no causes were listed in the article, therefore it's wrong to say, even when quoting sources, that epilepsy and cataplexy are unrelated without giving reasons why they are believed exclusive. Wikilade (talk)

∗whereas epilepsy-specific drugs, known for making cataplexy/narcolepsy worse or having no effect, all too often have the same effect or lack thereof when used to treat epilepsy itself, which is one of several reasons the switch to MAO's and A-D's is being made. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.80.102.128 (talk) 19:05, 21 September 2010 (UTC)