Kleine-Levin syndrome
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kleine-Levin Syndrome, or KLS, is a rare disorder characterized by the need for excessive amounts of sleep (hypersomnia), (i.e., up to 20 hours a day); excessive food intake (compulsive hyperphagia); and an abnormally uninhibited sexual drive. Adolescent males are the predominant victims of the disorder. Individual sufferers may often become irritable, lethargic, and/or apathetic. KLS patients may appear disoriented and report hallucinations. Symptoms are cyclical; with days to weeks (even up to months) of suffering interspersed by weeks or months (even up to years) symptom-free. Although resolution of the disorder may occur for some in later life, this is not universal.
While some researchers speculate of a hereditary predisposition; others believe the condition may be the result of an autoimmune disorder.[attribution needed] Both proposals need not be mutually exclusive with the result being a malfunction of the portion of the brain that helps to regulate functions such as sleep, appetite, and body temperature (hypothalamus).
Similarities between KLS and Klüver-Bucy syndrome (another rare condition characterized by hyperphagia, hypersexuality, and emotional blunting) may warrant further attention.
[edit] Treatment
There is no definitive treatment for Kleine-Levin syndrome. Stimulants, including amphetamines, methylphenidate, imipramine and modafinil, administered orally, are used to treat sleepiness. Because of similarities between Kleine-Levin syndrome and certain mood disorders, lithium and carbamazepine may be prescribed. Responses to treatment have often been limited. This disorder needs to be differentiated from cyclic re-occurrence of sleepiness during the premenstrual period in teenaged girls that may be controlled with birth control pills. [1]
[edit] In media
Sleeping Beauty Syndrome was a four part film series directed by Andrew Barranca in 2001. Consisting of the films "Open Cage" starring Laura Kitchen, "Swim" starring Victoria Rhodes, "the Fleas" starring Sarah Morrison, and "Film Fragments of My Suicide" with Andrew Barranca. The films are all portraits of people who deal with emotional disorders by escaping life to find solace in new realities. All films were released by suicidalfilms.com. "Film Fragments of My Suicide" was released to the film festival circuit in 1999, and showed at the Kurz film festival in Hamburg Germany. Andrew Barranca's films deal with topics of loneliness and emotional turmoil often accompanied by noise collages.
