Can narcolepsy be detected by physical examination?
Or can by physical examination a doctor say for sure that a person does not have narcolepsy? Physical examination means eye movements etc..
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no. the only way to get a true diagnosis is with testing.
sometimes bloodwork will show the genetic anomaly for narcolepsy, but it’s absence should not rule out this disorder as not all cases are hereditary.
most often though, a dr will do a polysomnogram (sleep study) and a Multiple Sleep Latency Test. during the sleep study, they’ll hook you up to leads that can read exactly what is happening with your brain waves while you sleep at night, then have you do multiple naps the next day to see what happens during those as well. these tests can diagnose or rule out a number of sleep disorders (narcolepsy, apnea, rls, plmd to name a few)…and is really the only true way to tell if someone has narcolepsy.
keep in mind that a patient needs to present with symptoms of this disorder in order for a doc to go ahead with the tests. if nothing in the patient’s interview or exam shows signs of it, then a doc won’t likely order the sleep studies to be done.
if a patient DOES complain of narcolepsy-like symptoms & the doc doesn’t have the tests done, though, i’d suggest looking for a second opinion. narcolepsy is much more common than people realize…and it goes undiagnosed for many years for the average person with it because it’s symptoms can be seen in other disorders too.