1/3. The kleine-levin syndrome - effects of treatment with lithium -.kleine-levin syndrome (KLS) is a rare disorder which affects mainly adolescents. Periods of extreme somnolence alternate with megaphagia, psychomental changes and behavioural symptoms. The cause and pathogenesis of KLS remains unknown. Several treatments have been tried and recently lithium has been proposed for a prophylactic use in single cases. In view of the rarity of KLS, long-term results of lithium therapy have not been described yet. We report the clinical course of five adolescents with KLS who were treated with lithium. All patients showed significant EEG and polysomnographic changes during the episodes and had normal results in the interval. All patients had relapses while being treated with lithium. But episodes of hypersomnia under lithium therapy were shorter and monosymptomatic with lack of behavioural symptoms. Statistical modelling showed that the risk for a relapsing episode under maintenance of lithium drops per months of therapy from 100 % to 93 %, and furthermore that the maintenance of lithium shortens the mean duration of episodes to 19 %. No severe side effects were observed. In conclusion, in KLS with a high frequency of episodes and severe behavioural changes lithium may become a treatment option.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = behaviour (Clic here for more details about this article) |
2/3. kleine-levin syndrome: a cause of diagnostic confusion.The case is described of a boy with the kleine-levin syndrome in whom prominent behavioural disturbances and the initial absence of a clear cyclical pattern obscured the diagnosis. Treatment with lithium was effective.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 0.33333333333333keywords = behaviour (Clic here for more details about this article) |
3/3. Novel chromosomal abberation in a patient with a unique sleep disorder.A 45 year old woman presenting with periodic hypersomnia for 17 years is reported on. She would sleep for three weeks followed by the same period awake. polysomnography in the somnolent period disclosed an excess of total sleeping time with remarkably increased stage 1, 3/4, and REM sleep, without cataplexy or sleep paralysis. HLA typing was incompatible with narcolepsy or REM sleep behavioural disorder. Her chromosomes showed premature centromere division with chromatid puffing in areas of constitutive heterochromatin, which is exclusively found in the syndrome of infants termed Roberts' syndrome/SC phocomelia. Other laboratory findings were not normal. It is suggested that the present case is a novel sleep disorder related to a unique chromosomal aberration.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 0.33333333333333keywords = behaviour (Clic here for more details about this article) |