ArticleSleep & breathing = Schlaf & Atmung2016
Misdiagnosis of narcolepsy.
Article in Sleep & breathing = Schlaf & Atmung, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 29 citations in OpenAlex.
- The prevalence and incidence of narcolepsy in the United States: a real-world observational study using a validated narcolepsy case definition.Sleep advances : a journal of the Sleep Research Society · 2026Article
- Narcolepsy 2025 (with an Australasian perspective).Internal medicine journal · 2025Review
- Narcolepsy: Beyond the Classic Pentad.CNS drugs · 2025Review
- Challenges in the Management of Narcolepsy in a Resource Limited Setting: A Case Report.Cureus · 2024Article
- Article
- Prevalence and incidence of narcolepsy symptoms in the US general population.Sleep medicine: X · 2023Article
- Central disorders of hypersomnolence: diagnostic discrepancies between military and civilian sleep centers.Journal of clinical sleep medicine : JCSM : official publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine · 2022Article
- Article
- Increased very low frequency pulsations and decreased cardiorespiratory pulsations suggest altered brain clearance in narcolepsy.Communications medicine · 2022Article
- Case report: Cases of narcolepsy misdiagnosed as other psychiatric disorders.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Article
- Diagnosing narcolepsy in the active duty military population.Sleep & breathing = Schlaf & Atmung · 2021Article
- Impact of parental injury on adolescent sleep.Journal of clinical sleep medicine : JCSM : official publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine · 2020Article
- Red Flags for early referral of people with symptoms suggestive of narcolepsy: a report from a national multidisciplinary panel.Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2019Review
- Time for a standardized clinical assessment for narcolepsy with obstructive sleep apnea.Sleep & breathing = Schlaf & Atmung · 2018Article
- Missed diagnosis of longstanding narcolepsy.Journal of psychiatry & neuroscience : JPNArticle
- Psychogenic Seizure Imitating Narcolepsy.Case reports in neurologyArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundNarcolepsy is a chronic primary sleep disorder, characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness and sleep dysfunction with or without cataplexy. Narcolepsy is uncommon, with a low prevalence rate which makes it difficult to diagnose definitively without a complex series of tests and a detailed history. The aim of this study was to review patients referred to a tertiary sleep centre who had been labelled with a diagnosis of narcolepsy prior to referral in order to assess if the diagnosis was accurate, and if not, to determine the cause of diagnostic misattribution.
methodsAll patients seen at a sleep centre from 2007-2013 (n = 551) who underwent detailed objective testing including an MSLT PSG, as well as wearing an actigraphy watch and completing a sleep diary for 2 weeks, were assessed for a pre-referral and final diagnosis of narcolepsy.
resultsOf the 41 directly referred patients with a diagnostic label of narcolepsy, 19 (46 %) were subsequently confirmed to have narcolepsy on objective testing and assessment by a sleep physician using ICSD-2 criteria.
conclusionsThe diagnosis of narcolepsy was incorrectly attributed to almost 50 % of patients labelled with a diagnosis of narcolepsy who were referred for further opinion by a variety of specialists and generalists. Accurate diagnosis of narcolepsy is critical for many reasons, such as the impact it has on quality of life, driving, employment, insurance and pregnancy in women as well as medication management.
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