The ADHD connection to narcolepsy: Vindication!

Dr. Modestino fought for years to uncover the truth of whether there was indeed a true connection between the childhood onset disorder of ADHD and the sleep disorder narcolepsy. Dr. Modestino has received an overwhelming amount of skepticism from neurologists, sleep specialists, psychiatrists, and psychologists over the last 30+ years about this. This is discussed in detail in Dr. Modestino's blog, which is linked here.

Dr. Modestino just had a genetic study about this relationship accepted for publication in Academia Molecular Biology and Genomics. The study was titled, "GWAS Meta-Meta Analysis along with in-depth silico, Systems Biology, and Pharmacogenomics (PGx) approaches revealed a shared genetic background between ADHD and Narcolepsy with potential links to Schizophrenia: Clues to novel biological and psychological diagnostic and therapeutic targets " Note: this was the original title, which has been shortened at the insistance of a reviewer. In this study, we discovered three genetic variants common to both ADHD and narcolepsy, with a potential linking endophenotype being schizophrenia. Even one of the reviewers for our genetic study doubted the accuracy and importance of this connection, demonstrating continued skepticism!

Today, as Dr. Modestino was preparing for a lecture on sleep disorders for the graduate course he is teaching in the Marriage and Family Therapy M.S. program, he discovered that DSM-5-TR already had ADHD listed as a common comorbidity of narcolepsy! Here is a direct quote:

DSM-5-TR, p. 429.

We can come a long way from overwhelming skepticism to objective genes, and the comorbidity connection being acknowledged as authentic in the DSM-5-TR!

References:

American Psychiatric Association. (2022). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed., text rev.). https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425787