Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Apr 1;19(4):719-726.
doi: 10.5664/jcsm.10418.

Resilience and its correlates in patients with narcolepsy type 1

Alessandra D'Alterio  1 , Marco Menchetti  2 , Corrado Zenesini  3 , Andrea Rossetti  1 , Luca Vignatelli  3 , Christian Franceschini  4 , Giorgia Varallo  4 , Fabio Pizza  2   3 , Giuseppe Plazzi  3   5 , Francesca Ingravallo  1
Affiliations

Resilience and its correlates in patients with narcolepsy type 1

Alessandra D'Alterio et al. J Clin Sleep Med. .

Abstract

Study objectives: This study aimed to explore resilience and its possible association with sociodemographic and clinical features in patients with narcolepsy type 1 (NT1).

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study involving patients with NT1 and age-/sex-matched controls (comparison group). Sociodemographic and clinical data were collected through semistructured interviews and validated questionnaires, including the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI)-State Anxiety, Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), 36-item Short Form Survey (SF-36), and the Resilience Scale (RS). Different statistical approaches were used to investigate the relationship between resilience and NT1 and associations with sociodemographic and clinical features.

Results: The participants comprised 137 patients (mean age, 38.0 years; 52.6% female) and 149 controls (39.6 years; 55.7% female). Compared with controls, patients had a significantly lower (122.6 vs 135.5) mean RS score and a 2-fold risk of having low/mild-range resilience (adjusted odds ratio = 1.99, 95% confidence interval 1.13-3.52). Patients with high resilience had sociodemographic and narcolepsy characteristics similar to patients with low resilience, but they reported anxiety and depressive symptomatology less frequently (4.2% vs 55.8% and 58.3%, respectively), and their SF-36 scores were comparable to those of the comparison group. In patients, RS score was strongly associated with STAI-State Anxiety and BDI (rho = -0.57 and -0.56, respectively) and weakly with ESS (rho = -20) scores.

Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that resilience may play a key role in patients' adaptation to NT1. Furthermore, this study supports interventions aimed at increasing patients' resilience and provides a base for further studies, preferably longitudinal and including objective measures, directed toward understanding the relationship between resilience, depression, and quality of life in patients with narcolepsy.

Citation: D'Alterio A, Menchetti M, Zenesini C, et al. Resilience and its correlates in patients with narcolepsy type 1. J Clin Sleep Med. 2023;19(4):719-726.

Keywords: adaptation; anxiety; cataplexy; depression; narcolepsy; quality of life; resilience; sleepiness.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

All authors have seen and approved the manuscript. Work for this study was performed at the Narcolepsy Center of Bologna and at the outpatient clinic of the IRCCS Institute of Neurological Sciences of Bologna (ISNB), Italy. Alessandra D’Alterio received a grant funded by the Italian Narcolepsy and Hypersomnias Association (AIN). The other authors report no conflicts of interest.

References

    1. American Academy of Sleep Medicine . International Classification of Sleep Disorders. 3rd ed. Darien, IL: : American Academy of Sleep Medicine; ; 2014. .
    1. Mahoney CE , Cogswell A , Koralnik IJ , Scammell TE . The neurobiological basis of narcolepsy . Nat Rev Neurosci. 2019. ; 20 ( 2 ): 83 – 93 . - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ingravallo F , Gnucci V , Pizza F , et al. . The burden of narcolepsy with cataplexy: how disease history and clinical features influence socio-economic outcomes . Sleep Med. 2012. ; 13 ( 10 ): 1293 – 1300 . - PubMed
    1. Thorpy MJ , Krieger AC . Delayed diagnosis of narcolepsy: characterization and impact . Sleep Med. 2014. ; 15 ( 5 ): 502 – 507 . - PubMed
    1. Maski K , Steinhart E , Williams D , et al. . Listening to the patient voice in narcolepsy: diagnostic delay, disease burden, and treatment efficacy . J Clin Sleep Med. 2017. ; 13 ( 3 ): 419 – 425 . - PMC - PubMed

Publication types