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. 2025 May:347:116390.
doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2025.116390. Epub 2025 Feb 13.

Prevalence of narcolepsy in representative samples of the general population of North America, Europe, and South Korea

Maurice M Ohayon  1 , Shreya Dave  2 , Stephen Crawford  3 , Todd J Swick  4 , Marie-Lise Côté  5
Affiliations

Prevalence of narcolepsy in representative samples of the general population of North America, Europe, and South Korea

Maurice M Ohayon et al. Psychiatry Res. 2025 May.

Abstract

Objectives: Narcolepsy is a rare, chronic, central disorder of hypersomnolence characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness, hypnagogic/hypnopompic hallucinations, sleep paralysis, disrupted nighttime sleep, and sometimes cataplexy (Type 1). The objective of this study was to assess the prevalence of narcolepsy in a large representative general population sample in North America, Europe, and Asia.

Methods: This cross-sectional epidemiological study utilized data from the Sleep-EVAL research database. The study involved 61,754 participants from 10 countries interviewed between 1992 and 2016 using the Sleep-EVAL Expert System, an artificial intelligence system designed to conduct interviews and perform positive and differential diagnoses based on interview responses. Using the answers provided for each symptom, the expert system built its diagnostic tree to reach a diagnostic conclusion of narcolepsy type 1 (NT1) or narcolepsy type 2 (NT2) for each participant according to the International Classification of Sleep Disorders, Third Edition, criteria.

Results: Overall, the prevalence of NT1 was estimated to be 19.1/100,000 persons and the prevalence of NT2 was 23.3/100,000 persons. Prevalence of NT1 and NT2 was similar between countries and between men and women. Highest prevalence was among participants aged 35 years or younger for NT1 and among participants aged 35-54 years for NT2.

Conclusions: Our study, based on data from the general populations of several countries, shows that narcolepsy is a rare disorder, affecting 42.4/100,000 persons.

Keywords: Cataplexy; Epidemiology; Narcolepsy; Prevalence.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Maurice M Ohayon reports financial support was provided by John-Arrillaga Foundation. Maurice M Ohayon reports administrative support, article publishing charges, and writing assistance were provided by Takeda Development Center Americas Inc. Marie-Lise Cote reports administrative support, article publishing charges, and writing assistance were provided by Takeda Development Center Americas Inc. Stephen Crawford reports a relationship with Takeda Development Center Americas Inc that includes: employment and equity or stocks. Shreya Dave reports a relationship with Takeda Development Center Americas Inc that includes: employment and equity or stocks. Todd J Swick reports a relationship with Takeda Development Center Americas Inc that includes: employment and equity or stocks. Maurice M Ohayon reports a relationship with Takeda Development Center Americas Inc that includes: consulting or advisory. Maurice M Ohayon reports a relationship with Jazz Pharmaceuticals Inc that includes: consulting or advisory. Maurice M Ohayon reports a relationship with Tris Pharma Inc that includes: consulting or advisory. Marie-Lise Cote reports a relationship with Takeda Development Center Americas Inc that includes: funding grants. Marie-Lise Cote reports a relationship with Tris Pharma Inc that includes: funding grants. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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