RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Sleep paralysis: a study in family practice
JF The Journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners
JO J R Coll Gen Pract
FD British Journal of General Practice
SP 465
OP 467
VO 38
IS 315
A1 J. Herman
A1 Z. Furman
A1 G. Cantrell
A1 R. Peled
YR 1988
UL http://bjgp.org/content/38/315/465.abstract
AB Over a period of two years, five patients with sleep paralysis referred themselves to four family practices in Israel serving a population of 6800. None of the patients suffered from daytime sleep attacks or cataplexy and all were from the oriental (sephardi) community. The two who were tissue typed had HLA haplotypes different from those which are exclusively associated with narcolepsy and one of them who also underwent polysomnography had a normal tracing. There was considerable delay in consulting a physician despite the physical and mental anguish caused by the disorder and some improvement was noted once the diagnosis was explained. The serious nature of the components of the differential diagnosis - myocardial infarction, seizure disorder, cardiac arrest, anaesthetic accident - makes it important that sleep paralysis be more widely recognized.