Executive attention and working memory in narcoleptic outpatients

objective: this pioneering study aimed to evaluate executive attention and working memory in brazilian narcoleptic outpatients. methods: narcoleptic group: 19 treated narcoleptic outpatients (13 f; 6 m) (mean age=37.58; sd = 8.93); control group: 19 subjects (15 f; 4 m) (mean age=34.42; sd=12.31). instruments: epworth sleepiness scale - brazilian portuguese version (ess-br), victoria stroop test (vst), trail making test (tmt) and letter-number sequencing (lns) of wais-iii. results: significant difference at excessive daytime sleepiness (eds) (p<0.001) and at working memory (p=0.009) with worse results for narcoleptic patients. patients were slower at vst-1 (p=0.002), vst-2 (p=0.045) and at tmt-a (p=0.016), tmt-b (p=0.006) and b-a (p=0.024). conclusion: narcoleptic patients showed higher degrees of eds, an impaired executive attention at a temporal level and lower performance in working memory when compared to normal controls.