Narcolepsy: The Tip of an Iceberg of Neurological Dysfunction

Abstract

Here we demonstrate that the symptoms of narcolepsy are only a subset of the larger number of symptoms caused by absent or greatly diminished rexinergic signaling. We point out that the encompassing disorder has not been previously been described in the literature. We then suggest that this encompassing disorder be described, named and entered into the taxonomy of diseases as a neurological disorder with pansomatic effects. We opine that having the disorder in the literature would help to bring clinicians to a greater awareness of the many physiological and behavioral manifestations of the neurological dysfunction that also causes narcolepsy, and would improve the interactions that people with narcolepsy have with clinicians and thereby improve the quality of the care they receive.