Syndrome of Episodes of Hypersomnia, Bulimia, and Abnormal Mental States

The episodic occurrence of states of excessive hunger (bulimia) and excessive sleep (hypersomnia) has been referred to as the Kleine-Levin syndrome by Critchley and Hoffman,¹by Ronald,²and also by Palmer.³In Kleine's⁴series of five cases only two fit the syndrome to which his name later became attached, and it remains the merit of Levin⁵to have clearly recognized the peculiar syndrome of "periodic somnolence and morbid hunger." Many of the case histories described in the literature (Kaplinskiy and Schulmann,⁶Levin,⁵Critchley and Hoffman,¹Ronald,²and Palmer³) indicate that periodic somnolence and excessive hunger are not the only two features of the syndrome and that psychopathological phenomena should be added as the third component of the syndrome. Recent observers⁷expressed the belief that the syndrome was confined to the male sex and the younger age group with onset