Restless Legs Syndrome Prevalence and Impact (original) (raw)
Related papers
Prevalence and Correlates of Restless Legs Syndrome
Chest, 2006
The purpose of this analysis was to investigate the prevalence and correlates of restless legs syndrome (RLS) symptoms in the 2005 National Sleep Foundation (NSF) Sleep in America 2005 Poll. The NSF poll is an annual telephone interview of a random, representative sample of US adults. Methods: The NSF 2005 poll included 1,506 adults. Their mean age was 49 years, and 775 were women. Results: Symptoms of RLS that included unpleasant feelings in the legs for at least a few nights a week, which were worse at night, were reported by 9.7% of individuals in this poll, including 8% of men and 11% of women. Those from the northeast United States were much less likely to be at risk than those from other regions of the country (p < 0.05). Those who were unemployed (p < 0.05) or smoked daily (p < 0.5) were more likely to be at risk for RLS, as were those with hypertension, arthritis, gastroesophageal reflux disease, depression, anxiety, and diabetes (p < 0.05 for all). Adults who were at risk for RLS appeared to also be at increased risk for sleep apnea and insomnia (p < 0.05), and were more likely to stay up longer than they planned, to take longer than 30 min to fall asleep, to drive when drowsy, and to report daytime fatigue than those who were not at risk (p < 0.05 for all). They were also more likely to report being late to work, missing work, making errors at work, and missing social events because of sleepiness than other respondents in the poll (p < 0.05 for all). Conclusions: RLS is significantly associated with medical and psychiatric conditions, other sleep disorders, unfavorable lifestyle behaviors, and adverse effects on daytime function. Chest physicians who practice sleep medicine need to be able to identify and manage RLS, which is prevalent and is associated with considerable morbidity.
Prevalence of restless legs syndrome and periodic limb movement disorder in the general population
Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 2002
Background: Periodic limb movement disorder (PLMD) and restless legs syndrome (RLS) are two sleep disorders characterized by abnormal leg movements and are responsible for deterioration in sleep quality. However, the prevalence of these disorders is not well known in the general population. This study aims to document the prevalence of RLS and PLMD in the general population and to identify factors associated with these conditions. Methods: Crosssectional studies were performed in the UK, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain. Overall, 18,980 subjects aged 15 to 100 years old representative of the general population of these five European countries underwent telephone interviews with the Sleep-EVAL system. A section of the questionnaire assessed leg symptoms during sleep. The diagnoses of PLMD and RLS were based on the minimal criteria provided by the International Classification of Sleep Disorders. Results: The prevalence of PLMD was 3.9% and RLS was 5.5%. RLS and PLMD were higher in women than in men. The prevalence of RLS significantly increased with age. In multivariate models, being a woman, the presence of musculoskeletal disease, heart disease, obstructive sleep apnea syndrome, cataplexy, doing physical activities close to bedtime and the presence of a mental disorder were significantly associated with both disorders. Factors specific to PLMD were: being a shift or night worker, snoring, daily coffee intake, use of hypnotics and stress. Factors solely associated with RLS were: advanced age, obesity, hypertension, loud snoring, drinking at least three alcoholic beverages per day, smoking more than 20 cigarettes per day and use of SSRI. Conclusions: PLMD and RLS are prevalent in the general population. Both conditions are associated with several physical and mental disorders and may negatively impact sleep. Greater recognition of these sleep disorders is needed. D
Sleep Medicine, 2003
Background: There is a need for an easily administered instrument which can be applied to all patients with restless legs syndrome (RLS) to measure disease severity for clinical assessment, research, or therapeutic trials. The pathophysiology of RLS is not clear and no objective measure so far devised can apply to all patients or accurately reflect severity. Moreover, RLS is primarily a subjective disorder. Therefore, a subjective scale is at present the optimal instrument to meet this need. Methods: Twenty centers from six countries participated in an initial reliability and validation study of a rating scale for the severity of RLS designed by the International RLS study group (IRLSSG). A ten-question scale was developed on the basis of repeated expert evaluation of potential items. This scale, the IRLSSG rating scale (IRLS), was administered to 196 RLS patients, most on some medication, and 209 control subjects. Results: The IRLS was found to have high levels of internal consistency, inter-examiner reliability, test-retest reliability over a 2-4 week period, and convergent validity. It also demonstrated criterion validity when tested against the current criterion of a clinical global impression and readily discriminated patient from control groups. The scale was dominated by a single severity factor that explained at least 59% of the pooled item variance. Conclusions: This scale meets performance criteria for a brief, patient completed instrument that can be used to assess RLS severity for purposes of clinical assessment, research, or therapeutic trials. It supports a finding that RLS is a relatively uniform disorder in which the severity of the basic symptoms is strongly related to their impact on the patient's life. In future studies, the IRLS should be tested against objective measures of RLS severity and its sensitivity should be studied as RLS severity is systematically manipulated by therapeutic interventions.
Sleep Medicine, 2009
Background and purpose: Epidemiological studies of restless legs syndrome (RLS) have been limited by lack of a well validated patient-completed diagnostic questionnaire that has a high enough specificity to provide a reasonable positive predictive value. Most of the currently used patient completed diagnostic questionnaires have neither been validated nor included items facilitating the differential diagnosis of RLS from conditions producing similar symptoms. The Cambridge-Hopkins diagnostic questionnaire for RLS (CH-RLSq) was developed with several iterations to include items covering the basic diagnostic features of RLS and to provide some basic differential diagnosis. This validation study sought to determine the sensitivity and specificity of the RLS diagnosis based on this questionnaire. Patients and methods: The CH-RLSq was completed by 2005 blood donors who were asked to consent to being contacted for a telephone diagnostic interview. A scoring criterion was established for ascertainment of RLS based on the clinical definition of the disorder and the exclusion of ''mimic" conditions. A weighted sample (N = 185) of all completed questionnaires was selected for expert clinical diagnosis of RLS using the validated Hopkins Telephone Diagnostic Interview (HDTI). The telephone interviewers were blinded to all questionnaire responses. Results: A telephone diagnosis was obtained on 183 of the sample's 185 questionnaires. The questionnaire's normalized sensitivity and specificity were 87.2% and 94.4%, respectively, for RLS compared to not RLS. The positive predictive values in this sample were 85.5%. Conclusions: The Cambridge-Hopkins RLS questionnaire provides a reasonable level of sensitivity and specificity for ascertainment of RLS in population-based studies.
Evaluating the quality of life of patients with restless legs syndrome
Clinical Therapeutics, 2004
The primary morbidities of restless legs syndrome (RLS) involve sleep loss, extreme discomfort, and disruption of normal activities. Although the condition is not life-threatening, assessing the disease burden and the impact of RLS on quality of life (QOL) is critical for evaluating treatment benefits.
Epidemiology and clinical findings of restless legs syndrome
Sleep Medicine, 2004
Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is a sensory-motor disorder characterized by discomfort of and urge to move the legs, primarily during rest or inactivity, partial or total relief with movement, with presence or worsening exclusively in the evening. It is a relatively common but frequently unrecognized disorder, with a prevalence ranging from 2.5 to 15% of the general population, increasing with age and with a female preponderance. The diagnosis is clinical but polysomnography is useful to determine its profound impact on sleep (difficulties in sleep onset, maintaining sleep during the night, and sleep fragmentation) and for the evidence of periodic legs movements during sleep and wake. RLS is generally idiopathic, with familial association in 40 -60% of the cases, but may also be symptomatic of such associated conditions (secondary forms) as peripheral neuropathies, uremia, iron deficiency (with or without anemia), diabetes, Parkinson's disease and pregnancy. Response to dopaminergic drugs indicates that dopamine receptors are implicated, and although much progress has been made in diagnosis and treatment in the last decade, more is needed for complete elucidation of the etiology and pathophysiology of RLS. q
Epidemiology of restless legs syndrome: A synthesis of the literature
Sleep Medicine Reviews, 2012
Restless legs syndrome (RLS) has gained considerable attention in the recent years: nearly 50 community-based studies have been published in the last decade around the world. The development of strict diagnostic criteria in 1995 and their revision in 2003 helped to stimulate research interest on this syndrome. In community-based surveys, RLS has been studied as: 1) a symptom only, 2) a set of symptoms meeting minimal diagnostic criteria of the international restless legs syndrome study group (IRLSSG), 3) meeting minimal criteria accompanied with a specific frequency and/or severity, and 4) a differential diagnosis. In the first case, prevalence estimates in the general adult population ranged from 9.4% to 15%. In the second case, prevalence ranged from 3.9% to 14.3%. When frequency/severity is added, prevalence ranged from 2.2% to 7.9% and when differential diagnosis is applied prevalence estimates are between 1.9% and 4.6%. In all instances, RLS prevalence is higher in women than in men. It also increases with age in European and North American countries but not in Asian countries. Symptoms of anxiety and depression have been consistently associated with RLS. Overall, individuals with RLS have a poorer health than non-RLS but evidence for specific disease associations is mixed. Future epidemiological studies should focus on systematically adding frequency and severity in the definition of the syndrome in order to minimize the inclusion of cases mimicking RLS.
Medical conditions associated with Restless Legs syndrome: Anxiety disorder is on first line
Sahin S, Cinar N, Okluoglu T, Bilge M.O, Sezgin G, Karsidag S. Medical Conditions Associated with Restless Legs Syndrome: Anxiety Disorder is on the First Line. Mov Dis 2009;24: S445-S446. , 2009
Objective: Based on recent data about the association between restless legs syndrome (RLS) and different medical conditions, we performed a study on the occurrence of comorbid disorders in patients with RLS. Background: Several conditions were shown to be associated with restless legs syndrome (RLS), especially anemia and, renal failure, rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia and peripheral neuropathy. These are considered “secondary” forms of RLS. In absence of those medical disorders, RLS is called “primary” or “idiopathic” RLS, the most frequent form of this condition. Nowadays, new comorbidities and risk factors including mood disorders have described in literature. Methods: Four thousand five hundred patients which have been seen in the general neurology outpatient clinic between 2006 and 2008 were evaluated as retrospectively and 76 patients with RLS were selected, a telephone interview was made with them, and they were invited. Fifty-five patients (34 females and 21males) accepted and they re-evaluated. The presence of associated conditions was determined by clinical interviews, complete physical and neurological examinations, and blood chemistry and electromyogram when clinically recommended. Also, Hamilton depression and anxiety scales were applied to all patients. Results: Seventy-six patients (1.6%) of the general neurology outpatient clinic were suffering from RLS. We could re-evaluated 55 of them. Among the RLS subjects, 61.8 % was female (mean age 55±14 years), and 38.2% was male (mean age 61±11 years). RLS symptoms were reported for a mean duration of 5.8±7.4 years (range=1–35 years). Mild-moderate depression was noted in 3 patients (5.4%) and generalized anxiety disorder were found in 13 patients (23.6%) with RLS. Other comorbid conditions were iron deficiency anemia (7.3%), type 2 diabetes mellitus (7.3%), parkinsonism (5.4%), Alzheimer's disease (5.4%) lumbar disc herniation (10.9%), hypertension (12.7%), and obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (9%). Conclusion: There is a significant relationship between physical and mental health problems and RLS. Our results strongly suggested that it was clear associaton between anxiety disorders and RLS. That relationship might be originated reciprocal interactions and common pathophysiologies. Further investigations are needed.