Students dozing off in the classroom might be more common than most teachers like, but for one 11-year-old student in Taichung, the reason was quite unusual, a neurologist said recently.
According to Children’s Hospital of China Medical University Division of Neurology director Chou I-ching (周宜卿), the boy had been feeling abnormally sleepy during the day despite getting sufficient sleep at night and often dozed off in class.
“Two months after the 11-year-old exhibited unusual drowsiness, he started experiencing sudden weakness and collapsed when overcome by emotion, such as happiness, or while talking. There were also incidents where he suddenly fell down while walking, but he was conscious the entire time,” Chou said.
Photo: Tsai Shu-yuan, Taipei Times
Chou said the child experienced an average of 20 to 30 episodes of abnormal muscle weakness per day, and each time it took nearly 10 minutes for him to regain mobility.
The condition affected the boy not only physically, but also emotionally, Chou said.
“He became terrified of walking since the onset of the symptoms, and refused to walk without holding on to something. He also cried often,” Chou said.
The boy was later diagnosed with a type of narcolepsy — a chronic sleep disorder characterized by overwhelming daytime drowsiness and sudden attacks of sleep — that is accompanied by cataplexy, which involves sudden episodes of muscle weakness while fully conscious, the physician said.
“About 70 percent of patients with narcolepsy also suffer from cataplexy, which affects about two to 16 teenagers per 10,000, and is most prevalent among people aged 10 to 20,” Chou said.
The physician said people with narcolepsy often wake up during sleep due to a decrease in their level of sleep-modulating neurotransmitters, resulting in them falling asleep during the day.
The boy has regained a normal sleeping schedule after being medically treated for two weeks, Chou said, urging adolescents who often experience unusual daytime drowsiness, nightmares, visual or auditory hallucinations, as well as sudden collapse due to muscle weakness, to seek immediate medical attention.
POLAM KOPITIAM CASE: Of the two people still in hospital, one has undergone a liver transplant and is improving, while the other is being evaluated for a liver transplant A fourth person has died from bongkrek acid poisoning linked to the Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said yesterday, as two other people remain seriously ill in hospital. The first death was reported on March 24. The man had been 39 years old and had eaten at the restaurant on March 22. As more cases of suspected food poisoning involving people who had eaten at the restaurant were reported by hospitals on March 26, the ministry and the Taipei Department of Health launched an investigation. The Food and
A fourth person has died in a food poisoning outbreak linked to the Xinyi (信義) branch of Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in Taipei, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said on Monday. It was the second fatality in three days, after another was announced on Saturday. The 40-year-old woman experienced multiple organ failure in the early hours on Monday, and the family decided not to undergo emergency resuscitation, Wang said. She initially showed signs of improvement after seeking medical treatment for nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, but her condition worsened due to an infection, he said. Two others who
MEDICAL: The bills would also upgrade the status of the Ethical Guidelines Governing the Research of Human Embryos and Embryonic Stem Cell Research to law The Executive Yuan yesterday approved two bills to govern regenerative medicine that aim to boost development of the field. Taiwan would reach an important milestone in regenerative medicine development with passage of the regenerative medicine act and the regenerative medicine preparations ordinance, which would allow studies to proceed and treatments to be developed, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) told reporters at a news conference after a Cabinet meeting. Regenerative treatments have been used for several conditions, including cancer — by regenerating blood cells — and restoring joint function in soft tissue, Wang said. The draft legislation requires regenerative treatments
Taiwanese should be mindful when visiting China, as Beijing in July is likely to tighten the implementation of policies on national security following the introduction of two regulations, a researcher said on Saturday. China on Friday unveiled the regulations governing the law enforcement and judicial activities of national security agencies. They would help crack down on “illegal” and “criminal” activities that Beijing considers to be endangering national security, according to reports by China’s state media. The definition of what constitutes a national security threat in China is vague, Taiwan Thinktank researcher Wu Se-chih (吳瑟致) said. The two procedural regulations are to provide Chinese