NARCOLEPSY VICTIM

Evening Star, Issue 22596, 13 March 1937, Page 2

NARCOLEPSY VICTIM

EFFECT OF LAUGHTER When Brenda O’Brien, aged nine, of Birkenhead, tries to laugh she just falls asleep, sometimes for about 10 or 20 minutes (says a London paper). She hardly appreciates the seriousness of the attack, but her mother believes she may be suffering from narcolepsy, a rare disease. Doctors have not yet made up their minds. Brenda formerly only dropped asleep when she was told a joke in the summer months between May and September, but latterly the attacks have been more frequent. A previous case of the same kind, in which the sufferer is a Wimbledon woman, was reported in the newspapers recently. The symptoms, states a doctor, closely resemble those of narcolepsy. This is a condition in which psychological disturbance is associated with unusually low blood-pressure. The patient’s reaction to any emotional strain is to fall asleep. A recently-dis-covered drug, benzedrine, has proved of great value, because it raises the bloodpressure. __________