The lasting legacy of Charles Fisher (1908-1988), pioneering sleep laboratory scientist and sleep medicine psychiatrist.

ABSTRACT: Charles Fisher is a pioneering historical figure in sleep laboratory research and sleep medicine who distinguished himself in nine areas: (1) he first documented nocturnal sleep-onset rapid eye movement (REM) sleep periods in narcoleptic patients; (2) he published the first case of polysomnography (PSG) documented acute REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD) that was triggered by sudden withdrawal from a monoamine oxidase inhibitor in 1978, 8 years before the formal identification of RBD; (3) he worked with Roffwarg and Dement on the early delineation of the ontogeny of the human sleep cycle; (4) he first demonstrated that benzodiazepine (diazepam) therapy was effective in controlling night terrors together with suppression of stage 4 non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, and he was also an earl

SUBMITTER: Schenck CH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11604066 | biostudies-literature | 2024

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature