A narcolepsy diagnosis was associated with a wide range of comorbid medical illness claims, at significantly higher rates than matched controls, a recent study found. Researchers evaluated 9,312 narcolepsy subjects and 46,559 controls without narcolepsy (each group: average age 46.1 years; 59% female). They found:

• Compared with controls, narcolepsy patients demonstrated a statistically significant excess prevalence in all Clinical Classification System (CCS) multilevel categories, the only exceptions being conditions originating in the perinatal period and pregnancy/childbirth complications.

• The greatest excess prevalence in the narcolepsy cohort was seen for mental illness (31.1% excess prevalence), followed by diseases of the digestive system (21.4% excess prevalence), and nervous system/sense organs (excluding narcolepsy) (20.7% excess prevalence).

• Anxiety and depression were the comorbidities with the greatest excess prevalence.

Citation: Black J, Reaven NL, Funk SE, et al. Medical comorbidity in narcolepsy: Findings from the burden of narcolepsy disease (BOND) study. [Published online ahead of print May 12, 2016]. Sleep Med. doi:10.1016/j.sleep.2016.04.004.