Psychiatry related information on Sleep Paralysis

• A new antodepressant drug, clomipramine hydrochloride, closely related to imipramine hydrochloride, was used to treat four patients suffering from cataplexy, sleep paralysis, and hypnagogic hallucinations [1].
• REM-associated hallucinations and sleep paralysis are dependent on body posture [2].
• We report on a patient with severe narcolepsy in whom administration of tranylcypromine led to freedom from hallucinations, nightmares, sleep paralysis, and rapid eye movements (REM), with considerable amelioration of cataplexy and increased daytime alertness [3].
• Recurrent nightmares in posttraumatic stress disorder: association with sleep paralysis, hypnopompic hallucinations, and REM sleep [4].

High impact information on Sleep Paralysis

• COMT genotype also strongly affected the presence of sleep paralysis and the number of REM sleep onsets during the MSLT [5].
• The authors report three cases of isolated sleep paralysis controlled by L-tryptophan with or without amitriptyline [6].
• Physiology of REM sleep, cataplexy, and sleep paralysis [7].
• Fluoxetine for isolated sleep paralysis [8].
• Panic disorder in African-Americans: symptomatology and isolated sleep paralysis [9].

Gene context of Sleep Paralysis

• This report suggests that MS may be associated with deficient REM sleep inhibitory neural mechanisms leading to sleep paralysis secondary to the intrusion of REM sleep atonia and dream imagery into the waking state [10].

References