The disease has four stages: # Characterized by worsening<unk> , resulting in panic attacks, paranoia, and phobias. This stage lasts for about four months. # Hallucinations and panic attacks become noticeable, continuing for about five months. # Complete inability to sleep is followed by rapid loss of weight. This lasts for about three months. # Dementia, during which the person becomes unresponsive or mute over the course of six months, is the final stage of the disease, after which death follows. Other symptoms include: profuse sweating, miosis (pinpoint pupils), sudden entrance into menopause for women, or impotence for men, neck stiffness, and elevation of blood pressure and heart rate. The sporadic form of the disease often presents with double vision. Constipation is common as well. As the disease progresses, the person becomes stuck in a state of pre-sleep limbo, or hypnagogia, which is the state just before sleep in healthy individuals. During these stages, people commonly and repeatedly move their limbs as if dreaming. The age of onset is variable, ranging from 13 to 60 years, with an average of 50. The disease can be detected prior to onset by genetic testing. Death usually occurs between 6–36 months from onset. The presentation of the disease varies considerably from person to person, even among people within the same family; in the sporadic form, for example, sleep problems are not commonly reported and early symptoms are ataxia, cognitive impairment, and double vision.
Fatal insomnia
Transmissible spongiform encephalopathy
Excited delirium
Frontotemporal dementia
Masked depression
Alzheimer's disease
Suicide crisis
Transient epileptic amnesia