KLEINE-LEVIN SYNDROME

For other uses see KLS(diabiguation)
'Kleine-Levin Syndrome', or KLS, is a rare disorder characterized by the need for excessive amounts of sleep (hypersomnia), (e.g. up to 20 hours a day); excessive food intake (compulsive hyperphagia); and an abnormally uninhibited sexual drive. Adolescent males are the predominant victims of the disorder.

Contents

Presentation

Causes

Treatment

Eponym

References

External links

Presentation

Individual sufferers may often become irritable, lethargic, and/or apathetic. KLS patients may appear disoriented and report hallucinations. Symptoms are cyclical; with days to weeks (even up to months) of suffering interspersed by weeks or months (even up to years) symptom-free. Although resolution of the disorder may occur for some in later life, this is not universal.

Causes

While some researchers speculate of a hereditary predisposition; others believe the condition may be the result of an autoimmune disorder.^[1] Both proposals need not be mutually exclusive with the result being a malfunction of the portion of the brain that helps to regulate functions such as sleep, appetite, and body temperature (hypothalamus).
Similarities between KLS and Klüver-Bucy syndrome (another rare condition characterized by hyperphagia, hypersexuality, and emotional blunting) may warrant further attention.

Treatment

There is no definitive treatment for Kleine-Levin syndrome. Stimulants, including amphetamines, methylphenidate, imipramine and modafinil, administered orally, are used to treat sleepiness. Because of similarities between Kleine-Levin syndrome and certain mood disorders, lithium and carbamazepine may be prescribed. Responses to treatment have often been limited. This disorder needs to be differentiated from cyclic re-occurrence of sleepiness during the premenstrual period in teenage girls that may be controlled with hormonal contraception. ^[2]

Eponym

It is named for Willi Kleine and Max Levin.^[3][4][5]

References

1. http://med.stanford.edu/school/Psychiatry/narcolepsy/KLS.html
2. http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/kleine_levin/kleine_levin.htm
3.
4. W. Kleine. Periodische Schlafsucht. Monatsschrift für Psychiatrie und Neurologie, 1925, 57: 285-320.
5. M. Levin. Periodic somnolence and morbid hunger: A new syndrome. Brain, Oxford, 1936, 59: 494-504.

External links

★ The KLS Foundation

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