Affiliation:
1. School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Xiamen University Malaysia, Malaysia
Abstract
Narcolepsy is an uncommon brain condition characterized by falling asleep suddenly without any proper reason or time. In this chapter, the authors include a brief history of narcolepsy, clinical symptoms, pathophysiology, and current treatments for the disease. The review explains narcolepsy according to the theory of TCM. The authors review the curative effect, pharmacological properties, and clinical results of herbs and prescriptions against narcolepsy. The study searched keywords such as ‘narcolepsy,' ‘Traditional Chinese medicine,' ‘sleep disorder,' ‘excessive sleepiness,' and ‘medicinal treatment' using databases such as CNKI, PubMed, and Google Scholar. Based on the analysis of data obtained from 110 articles, the authors have classified the herbs and prescriptions by their curative effects, following the theory of traditional Chinese medicine. Some herbs can be used alone, while others can use in conjunction with other prescriptions.