"Sleep Attacks" in Parkinson's Disease (MovDis Congress 2000)

Subject: "Sleep Attacks" in Parkinson's Disease (MovDis Congress 2000)

Date: 6/20/2000

E-MOVE reports from the 6th International Congress of Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders, held in Barcelona, Spain, 11-15 June 2000. Citation numbers refer to abstract numbers published in Movement Disorders 2000;15 (Supplement 3).

1. Sleep attacks in Parkinson's disease: Polysomnographic recordings
G Ebersbach, J Norden, F Tracik
P504

A 62-year-old patient with PD of 20 years' duration who reported sudden imperative sleep attacks underwent 48-hour polysomnography. Medications included levodopa, entacapone, cabergoline, amantadine, budipine and metixen. The patient did not meet diagnostic criteria for narcolepsy. Polysomnography showed four daytime naps, including two with a latency to S2 of less than one minute. The patient reported these naps as sudden and irresistible sleep attacks.

2. Sudden sleep attacks and antiparkinsonian drugs: A pilot prospective pharmacoepidemiological study
JJ Ferreira, K Desboeuf, M Galitzky, C Thalamas, C Brefel-Courbon, N Fabre, JM Senard, JL Montastruc, A Castro-Caldas, O Rascol
P897

Structured interview of 52 patients with PD revealed 39 who experienced daytime somnolence, and 6 who reported sudden, irresistible, and overwhelming sleepiness without warning signs. Of these, 2 were on levodopa monotherapy, 2 on levodopa and bromocriptine, 1 on levodopa, bromocriptine, entacapone, and trihexyphenidyl, and 1 on levodopa, lisuride, and entacapone.

3. Sleep attacks after acute administration of apomorphine
CN Homann, K Wenzel, K Suppan, M Feichtinger, G Ivanic, N Kriechbaum, E Ott
P585

Diagnostic apomorphine tests on 68 PD patients resulted in 2 patients experiencing "narcoleptic- like attack" while performing motor tasks, which began within 25 minutes of drug administration.

4. Sleep attacks in two Parkinson's disease patients taking ropinirole
D Paladini, A Cinti, P Guidoni, F Di Marzio, S Cocci Grifoni, F Angleri
P671

Two PD patients on ropinirole (24 mg/day; 8 mg/day plus 500 mg/day levodopa) experienced "sleep attacks," marked by sudden and complete loss of axial muscle tone, with one patient reporting her head dropping onto her plate. Symptoms stopped with cessation of ropinirole.

5. Modafinil treatment of pramipexole-induced somnolence
RA Hauser, MN Wahba, TA Zesiewicz
P680

A 34-year-old woman on 4.5 mg/day pramipexole experienced increasingly frequent daytime sleepiness, with two incidents of falling asleep while driving. She was treated with 50 mg/day modafinil for 5 days, then 100 mg/day. She reported a disappearance of her somnolence, with continued benefit through five months follow-up.