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Sleeping sickness of Kalachi, Kazakhstan | |
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Specialty | Psychiatry/sleep medicine |
The sleeping sickness of Kalachi, Kazakhstan (with the place or the syndrome sometimes called sleepy hollow) is a conjectured medical condition which causes a person to sleep for days or weeks at a time, together with other symptoms such as hallucinations, nausea, intoxicated behavior, disorientation and memory loss. The phenomenon was only reported in Kalachi and the nearby village of Krasnogorsk. [1] It was first reported in March 2013 [2] and by 2016 had affected about 150 people. [3] The syndrome appeared to be non-communicable. The disease disappeared for some time but re-emerged in 2015, and affected all age groups.
Potential causes of the syndrome were suggested to be carbon monoxide poisoning or contamination of the ground water supply by chemicals used for military operations in the region.
Other than excessive sleep, the disease causes hallucination, nausea and vomiting, and disorientation. Victims of the disease would sometimes act as if they were drunk, [2] would experience memory loss about what they had done and experienced, [2] and would often experience hallucinations like a "snail walking over their face".[ citation needed ] In a statement, a professor from Tomsk Polytechnic University, Leonid Rikhvanov, of the department of geo-ecology and geo-chemistry, said that radon gas from the mine could be the cause of the symptoms. [3]
The affected people would fall asleep during day-to-day activities and always feel sleepy. As a local nurse described the phenomenon to an RT news crew, "You wake them up, they can speak to you, reply to you, but as soon as you stop talking and ask what bothers them, they just want to sleep, sleep, sleep." [4]
Kazakh officials gave a report about the disease, stating that heightened levels of carbon monoxide, along with other hydrocarbons due to flooding of an abandoned Soviet-era uranium mine nearby, was causing the syndrome, by spreading through the village's air. [2] [1] Concentration of carbon monoxide and reduced oxygen in the air were concluded to be the reason for the sleeping sickness in these villages.
An alternate theory was presented by an epidemiologist and experts from Nazarbayev University in Astana, Kazakhstan, after interviewing the local villagers, suggesting the ailment was caused by chemical contamination of the ground water supply. It was suggested that such chemicals had originated from use by the military and had leaked from barrels, but no particular chemicals were reported to have been identified – it was simply suggested that this was a theory worthy of further investigation, based on epidemiology rather than chemical analysis. [5]
Hypoxia is a condition in which the body or a region of the body is deprived of adequate oxygen supply at the tissue level. Hypoxia may be classified as either generalized, affecting the whole body, or local, affecting a region of the body. Although hypoxia is often a pathological condition, variations in arterial oxygen concentrations can be part of the normal physiology, for example, during strenuous physical exercise.
A sleep disorder, or somnipathy, is a medical disorder of an individual's sleep patterns. Some sleep disorders are severe enough to interfere with normal physical, mental, social and emotional functioning. Sleep disorders are frequent and can have serious consequences on patients’ health and quality of life. Polysomnography and actigraphy are tests commonly ordered for diagnosing sleep disorders.
Multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS), also known as idiopathic environmental intolerances (IEI), is an unrecognized and controversial diagnosis characterized by chronic symptoms attributed to exposure to low levels of commonly used chemicals. Symptoms are typically vague and non-specific. They may include fatigue, headaches, nausea, and dizziness.
Motion sickness occurs due to a difference between actual and expected motion. Symptoms commonly include nausea, vomiting, cold sweat, headache, dizziness, tiredness, loss of appetite, and increased salivation. Complications may rarely include dehydration, electrolyte problems, or a lower esophageal tear.
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Alice in Wonderland syndrome (AIWS), also known as Todd's syndrome or dysmetropsia, is a neurological disorder that distorts perception. People with this syndrome may experience distortions in their visual perception of objects, such as appearing smaller (micropsia) or larger (macropsia), or appearing to be closer (pelopsia) or farther (teleopsia) than they are. Distortion may also occur for senses other than vision.
Sick building syndrome (SBS) is a condition in which people develop symptoms of illness or become infected with chronic disease from the building in which they work or reside.
Carbon monoxide poisoning typically occurs from breathing in carbon monoxide (CO) at excessive levels. Symptoms are often described as "flu-like" and commonly include headache, dizziness, weakness, vomiting, chest pain, and confusion. Large exposures can result in loss of consciousness, arrhythmias, seizures, or death. The classically described "cherry red skin" rarely occurs. Long-term complications may include chronic fatigue, trouble with memory, and movement problems.
Space adaptation syndrome (SAS) or space sickness is a condition experienced by as many as half of all space travelers during their adaptation to weightlessness once in orbit. It is the opposite of terrestrial motion sickness since it occurs when the environment and the person appear visually to be in motion relative to one another even though there is no corresponding sensation of bodily movement originating from the vestibular system.
Exploding head syndrome (EHS) is an abnormal sensory perception during sleep in which a person experiences auditory hallucinations that are loud and of short duration when falling asleep or waking up. The noise may be frightening, typically occurs only occasionally, and is not a serious health concern. People may also experience a flash of light. Pain is typically absent.
Dizziness is an imprecise term that can refer to a sense of disorientation in space, vertigo, or lightheadedness. It can also refer to disequilibrium or a non-specific feeling, such as giddiness or foolishness.
Hypersomnia is a neurological disorder of excessive time spent sleeping or excessive sleepiness. It can have many possible causes and can cause distress and problems with functioning. In the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), hypersomnolence, of which there are several subtypes, appears under sleep-wake disorders.
Carbidopa/levodopa, also known as levocarb and co-careldopa, is the combination of the two medications carbidopa and levodopa. It is primarily used to manage the symptoms of Parkinson's disease, but it does not slow down the disease or stop it from getting worse. It is taken by mouth. It can take two to three weeks of treatment before benefits are seen. Each dose then begins working in about ten minutes to two hours with a duration of effect of about five hours.
Diving disorders, or diving related medical conditions, are conditions associated with underwater diving, and include both conditions unique to underwater diving, and those that also occur during other activities. This second group further divides into conditions caused by exposure to ambient pressures significantly different from surface atmospheric pressure, and a range of conditions caused by general environment and equipment associated with diving activities.
Kleine–Levin syndrome (KLS) is a rare neurological disorder characterized by persistent episodic hypersomnia accompanied by cognitive and behavioral changes. These changes may include disinhibition, sometimes manifested through hypersexuality, hyperphagia or emotional lability, and other symptoms, such as derealization. Patients generally experience recurrent episodes of the condition for more than a decade, which may return at a later age. Individual episodes generally last more than a week, sometimes lasting for months. The condition greatly affects the personal, professional, and social lives of those with KLS. The severity of symptoms and the course of the syndrome vary between those with KLS. Patients commonly have about 20 episodes over about a decade. Several months may elapse between episodes.
Nausea is a diffuse sensation of unease and discomfort, sometimes perceived as an urge to vomit. While not painful, it can be a debilitating symptom if prolonged and has been described as placing discomfort on the chest, abdomen, or back of the throat.
Sleeping sickness may refer to:
Idiopathic hypersomnia(IH) is a neurological disorder which is characterized primarily by excessive sleep and excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS). The condition typically becomes evident in early adulthood and most patients diagnosed with IH will have had the disorder for many years prior to their diagnosis. As of August 2021, an FDA-approved medication exists for IH called Xywav, which is oral solution of calcium, magnesium, potassium, and sodium oxybates; in addition to several off-label treatments (primarily FDA-approved narcolepsy medications).
Simulator sickness is a subset of motion sickness that is typically experienced while playing video games from first-person perspective. It was discovered in the context of aircraft pilots who undergo training for extended periods of time in flight simulators. Due to the spatial limitations imposed on these simulators, perceived discrepancies between the motion of the simulator and that of the vehicle can occur and lead to simulator sickness. It is similar to motion sickness in many ways, but occurs in simulated environments and can be induced without actual motion. Symptoms of simulator sickness include discomfort, apathy, drowsiness, disorientation, fatigue, and nausea. These symptoms can reduce the effectiveness of simulators in flight training and result in systematic consequences such as decreased simulator use, compromised training, ground safety, and flight safety. Pilots are less likely to want to repeat the experience in a simulator if they have suffered from simulator sickness and hence can reduce the number of potential users. It can also compromise training in two safety-critical ways:
Kalachi, previously Kalachevskiy, is a rural locality in Esil District of Akmola Region, Kazakhstan. In 2014, it was reported that almost a fifth of the population had been affected with a 'sleep syndrome'. In January 2015, reports said that over half of the village's population planned to move elsewhere. It was later determined that increased carbon monoxide levels from a nearby abandoned mine had caused oxygen levels in the town to fall.