Xywav (calcium, magnesium, potassium, and sodium oxybates), an approved medication for narcolepsy, is effective in easing disease symptoms, working to both reduce excessive daytime sleepiness and improve nighttime sleep quality in people with the rare sleep-related disorder. That’s according to newly published results from the Phase 4…
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Focusing on sleep spindles, a type of brain wave that’s recorded during sleep studies, may help researchers differentiate type 1 narcolepsy from another condition that causes daytime sleepiness, according to a new study from scientists in Japan. The team of scientists used automated analyses of sleep studies, or polysomnography,…
Use of the stimulant dexamphetamine during pregnancy to treat narcolepsy is not linked to harmful outcomes for mothers or their newborns, according to a small case series in Australia. The researchers reported that, among 10 pregnant women with narcolepsy or idiopathic hypersomnolence — excessive daytime sleepiness due to unknown…
Type 1 narcolepsy has long been linked to the loss of nerve cells called hypocretin neurons in a brain region called the hypothalamus, but a new study suggests damage to a second brain region, called the locus coeruleus, is also involved. This finding may help explain why people with…
Adults with type 1 narcolepsy (NT1) — generally the more severe disease type — often deal with symptoms beyond just uncontrollable sleepiness, including internalizing emotional and behavioral challenges that others tend to underestimate, a study suggests. Combining reports from both patients and close observers — family members and friends…
People with type 1 narcolepsy (NT1) may have changes in how their brain fluid barrier functions, a new study suggests. Lower levels of the water channel protein aquaporin-4 (AQP4), responsible for water balance and perivascular fluid movement (the flow of cerebrospinal fluid through spaces surrounding blood vessels in the…
In adults with narcolepsy type 1 (NT1), a specific brain region called the hypothalamus is smaller than in people without the condition, according to a new study. The findings add to a body of evidence suggesting that the hypothalamus is involved in NT1, though the researchers said the exact…
Alkermes has launched the Brilliance Studies, a Phase 3 clinical trial program that will evaluate the safety and effectiveness of alixorexton, its once-daily oral therapy candidate for people with narcolepsy types 1 and 2. The new program builds on findings of Phase 2 trials showing that alixorexton…
Modafinil, sold under the brand name Provigil among others, significantly eases excessive daytime sleepiness in people with narcolepsy, according to a new systematic review and meta-analysis. Across more than a half dozen studies involving nearly 1,000 patients, modafinil was found to increase wakefulness and reduce subjective sleepiness…
A new data-driven model has identified narcolepsy — a condition characterized by the brain’s inability to regulate sleep-wake cycles — as a key driver of excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS), which is marked by chronic, intense drowsiness that can occur throughout the day, a U.S. study found. The model, generated…
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