1. Vasotocin, melatonin and narcolepsy: Possible involvement of the pineal gland in its patho-physiological mechanism
- Author
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S. Pavel, Magdalena Petrescu, and R. Goldstein
- Subjects
Adult ,Male ,endocrine system ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Adolescent ,Physiology ,Sleep, REM ,Vasotocin ,Pineal Gland ,Biochemistry ,Melatonin ,Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience ,Pineal gland ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,Endocrinology ,Internal medicine ,medicine ,Humans ,Circadian rhythm ,Narcolepsy ,business.industry ,musculoskeletal, neural, and ocular physiology ,medicine.disease ,Sleep in non-human animals ,Circadian Rhythm ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,chemistry ,Sleep onset ,business ,psychological phenomena and processes ,hormones, hormone substitutes, and hormone antagonists ,medicine.drug ,Hormone - Abstract
Both the pineal nonapeptide hormone arginine vasotocin (AVT) (2.5 μg) administered intra-nasally and the pineal indole melatonin (50 mg) administered intravenously to three male narcoleptics (two with auxiliary symptoms and one with sleep attacks only), dramatically increased the amount of REM sleep and decreased REM sleep latency. The duration of the sleep onset REM periods in the two narcoleptics with auxiliary symptoms increased by more than 100 percent after AVT and melatonin administration. In the narcoleptic with sleep attacks only both AVT and melatonin induced REM periods at sleep onset. The hypothesis is advanced that narcolepsy represents an impairment of the melatonin-AVT control in the induction and circadian organization of REM sleep associated with an immaturity of REM triggering centers.
- Published
- 1980
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