Frequent neurological diseases associated with the restless legs syndrome

Abstract

Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is acommon neurological disease. Studies have shown that RLS is associated with avariety of medical and neurological disorders. Using the example of three associated neurological diseases, the significance for everyday therapy decisions is assessed. Asystematic search was carried out in PubMed for all studies with the keyword "RLS" in combination with polyneuropathies (PNP), Parkinson's disease (PD) and multiple sclerosis (MS) and classified according to the methodology in high, medium or low study quality. Of 16studies on RLS and MS, 10 were rated as "high". The high association frequency of RLS in MS between 13.3% and 65.1% (the variability possibly originates from different methods) prevents further statements about the prevalence. Within 30studies on Parkinson's disease 17 were classified as having a high quality. In patients with Parkinson disease RLS occurs most frequently during therapy and is related to the duration of dopaminergic treatment. In patients with polyneuropathy, only 5 out of 24studies were classified as being of high quality and an increased RLS prevalence was detected for acquired polyneuropathies with heterogeneous data for hereditary forms. There is an increased prevalence of association with RLS for the diseases discussed. This prevalence is possibly determined by the pathophysiology of these disorders. These diseases are possibly characterized by genetic predispositions as well, which can hopefully be classified more accurately in the future.