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Review
Paediatric narcolepsy: a review of diagnosis and management
  1. Jane Elizabeth Blackwell1,
  2. Ruth N Kingshott2,
  3. Anna Weighall3,
  4. Heather E Elphick2,
  5. Hannah Nash4
  1. 1 The Child Oriented Mental Health Intervention Centre, Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, York, UK
  2. 2 Department of Respiratory Medicine, Sheffield Children's Hospital, Sheffield, UK
  3. 3 School of Education, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
  4. 4 School of Psychology, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Jane Elizabeth Blackwell, The Child Oriented Mental Health Intervention Centre, Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, York YO10 5NB, UK; jane.elizabeth.blackwell{at}gmail.com

Abstract

Narcolepsy is a chronic disabling neurological sleep disorder that requires lifelong treatment. We have outlined the clinical features of narcolepsy, the assessment and diagnosis process and have summarised the existing treatment options for children and adolescents with narcolepsy. In the future, the approach to management of paediatric narcolepsy should ideally be in a multidisciplinary setting, involving specialists in sleep medicine, sleep physiology, neurologists and psychologists/psychiatrists. A multidisciplinary approach will help to manage the potential impact of narcolepsy on children and adolescents who are in a stage of their life that is critical to their physical, emotional and social development and their academic attainment.

  • sleep
  • adolescent health
  • child psychiatry

Data availability statement

Data sharing not applicable as no datasets generated and/or analysed for this study. No data are available.

https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2020-320671

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    Data availability statement

    Data sharing not applicable as no datasets generated and/or analysed for this study. No data are available.

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    Footnotes

    • Twitter @DrJaneBlackwell

    • Contributors JEB conducted the review as part of her PhD and wrote the manuscript.

    • Funding This work was conducted as part of JEB's PhD that was funded by a University of Leeds Anniversary Research Scholarship. Additional funding was awarded from Child Brain Research, The British Psychological Society, Narcolepsy UK, Sufferers of Unique Narcolepsy Disorder (SOUND) Ireland, The Max Hamilton Fund at the University of Leeds, The Psychology Postgraduate Affairs Group (PsyPAG) and The British Sleep Society.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.