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The influential factor of narcolepsy on quality of life: compared to obstructive sleep apnea with somnolence or insomnia

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Abstract

Narcoleptics tend to have a low quality of life (QoL). Few studies have compared QoL in narcolepsy against other sleep disorders. The purpose of this study was to investigate QoL and its influential factors in narcolepsy patients compared to obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) with somnolence and primary insomnia. We enrolled 63 narcoleptics (33 type 1, 30 type 2), 49 patients with OSA with somnolence, and 87 insomniacs. All patients were diagnosed through detailed clinical face-to-face interviews and polysomnography and had no other comorbid sleep disorders or medical diseases. All patients completed the Korean-version of the Short-Form 36-Item Health Survey (K-SF36) and a series of standard sleep-related questionnaires. The QoL of the narcolepsy group was comparable to the OSA with somnolence and insomnia groups. There was no significant difference between type 1 and type 2 narcolepsy on the total score of the K-SF36. However, factors that had the most impact on QoL included anxiety followed by depressive mood for narcoleptics, depressive mood followed by severity of insomnia for OSA with somnolence, and insomnia severity followed by depressive mood for insomniacs. Mood disturbances, mainly anxiety, affected QoL most in narcolepsy patients. Excessive daytime sleepiness and nocturnal sleep disturbance did not directly affect QoL of narcoleptics. To improve QoL in narcoleptics, proper management of anxiety should be considered as part of the treatment.

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Funding

No funding was received in this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Nursing, Daegu Health College, Daegu, South Korea

    Mei Ling Song

  2. Department of Neurology, Dongsan Medical Center, Keimyung University School of Medicine, 56 Dalseong-ro, Jung-gu, Daegu, 41931, South Korea

    Keun Tae Kim & Yong Won Cho

  3. Department of Neurology, Georgetown University Hospital, Washington, DC, USA

    Gholam K. Motamedi

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  1. Mei Ling Song
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  4. Yong Won Cho
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Correspondence to Yong Won Cho.

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Ethical standards

This study was approved by the institutional review board of a regional university hospital and patient consent was exempt due to the retrospective nature of the study (#2017-02-009). All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Song, M.L., Kim, K.T., Motamedi, G.K. et al. The influential factor of narcolepsy on quality of life: compared to obstructive sleep apnea with somnolence or insomnia. Sleep Biol. Rhythms 17, 447–454 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41105-019-00237-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41105-019-00237-w

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