Kleine-Levin syndrome is a group of symptoms consisting of bouts of bulimia (hyperphagia) and sexual arousal with alternating periods of excessive sleepiness.
Kleine-Levin syndromeis a rare disease. It is estimated that it affects only about 1,000 people worldwide, mainly boys in their adolescence. However, the example of 15-year-old Stacey Comerford from Great Britain shows that the disease can also affect girls.
Stacey Comerford is from Telford, a town in the English county of Shropshire. When she turned 14, her mother noticed strange behavior in her daughter. The girl could not concentrate, was often rude, and more and more often felt very tired. Her favorite leisure activity was…sen . She was initially tested for brain tumor, narcolepsy, and epilepsy. It was not until a neurologist from Birmingham Children's Hospital that a teenaged patient had a so-called sleeping beauty syndrome. The official name of this disease is Kleine-Levin syndrome. In its development, hypothalamic dysfunction or lesions in the hypothalamic-pituitary axis are considered.
Kleine-Levin syndrome - symptoms
Common symptoms for this disease are:
- attacks of increased sleepiness, lasting several days to several weeks
- aroused appetite - gluttony
- sexual arousal - excessive activity leading to the release of sexual tension
- mood disorders - tantrums, irritability, aggression
- disturbance of consciousness, memory impairment and attention deficit disorder, delusions
Seizures may recur at intervals of several months, in most cases the syndrome tends to spontaneously resolve.
In Stacey, other symptoms also appear - a teenager behaves like an irritated child in a fraction of a second - he whines, stomps his feet and makes sounds that resemble the voice of a small child.
Kleine-Levin syndrome - treatment
In many cases, this disease goes away on its own. However, you should always consult your doctor. A psychiatrist deals with the treatment of this type of disorder. Activating substances are most often used in treatment, for exampleamphetamine derivative psychedrin. The effect of taking it is general stimulation of the body.