Narcolepsy

Samantha was 16 when diagnosed with narcolepsy, a chronic sleep disorder. She describes the symptoms and how it affects her daily life, and an expert discusses its causes and treatment.

• Category

  News & Politics

[disbrey2k9]

subtitles ....REALLY?

[rtarbinar]

sure, why not? :)

[TheAngelsongband]

There are at least 52 cases of narcolepsy in Irish children, who were vaccinated with the GSK Pandemrix swine flu vaccine in 2009/2010. There are about 800 cases of Pandemrix induced narcolepsy in European countries; Ireland, Finland, Sweden, and other countries.

[Jenn Wriiting]

Sooooo I was waiting for her to fall asleep. :P

[Austin Buehler]

Did you go to that? Btw it's nice to see other people on here dealing with the same condition. Really make you realize your not alone. :)

[matthartig]

You don't. Best drug against cataplexy and fragmented night sleep is Xyrem which costs around 800€ /month here in Sweden. That's so expensive that the Swedish authorities decided to stop paying for it. Best against daily sleepiness is Modafinil, which costs about 200€ and is still covered by social insurance (but for how long?). So most narcoleptic patients here take only half of the treatment they need, instead of being fully active citizens, working and paying taxes.

[vertigoEdits]

because they pay for the views

[vip088]

You don't really... Unless you live in Wales.

The best working drug for me cost about £80-90 a week, with goverment support. Thats in Denmark.

[JosephD79]

hard to have a job having narcolepsy how do you then afford the drugs?

[c8Lorraine1]

Thank you for raising awareness for this condition. I agree that taking the meds makes your life more normal by controlling the attacks. There is no cure, but good support of friends and family are a blessing.

[Caitlin W]

Andrew Hall is appearing at the Narcolepsy UK conference in May.