As the doctor pointed out, the first and main symptom is the inability of a person to fall asleep. At the same time, with a fatal form of insomnia, sleeping pills are powerless, since the disease changes the structure of certain parts of the brain.
“First, insomnia develops, then its consequences appear: panic attacks, hallucinations. If we are talking about family fatal insomnia, then here, after several months of severe insomnia, a complete inability to sleep develops, then organic disorders of the nervous system, after which the person dies, “ – said the somnologist Elena Tsareva.
In addition to the main symptoms, fatal familial insomnia may have accompanying symptoms. For example, increased sweating, hormonal disorders, or changes in pupil diameter. As a rule, this dangerous disease does not appear before adolescence, is inherited and develops progressively, when the patient’s condition worsens with each subsequent stage.
“There is no cure for this disease. Sleeping pills do not work, because the very mechanism of sleep and the brain area responsible for sleep changes. The brain simply cannot fall asleep,” The queen noticed.
As previously reported, fatal familial insomnia is an extremely rare condition. In total, 40 families affected by this dangerous disease have been recorded in the world.
