Use of Potassium Citrate in Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS)

Abstract

It was an incidental finding that potassium citrate is significantly effective in Restless leg syndrome (RLS). While on use of potassium citrate 1080 mg equivalent to 10 mEq potassium orally once daily for the prevention of renal calculus in a patient suffering from renal colic it was incidentally observed that it significantly relieved the RLS of the patient. To evaluate the efficacy of potassium citrate in the treatment of RLS, a study was conducted on 68 patients having moderate to severe RLS. The patients were aged between 30 and 80. It was observed that 37 (54.4%) patients were completely relieved from RLS at the end of 15 days therapy and 20 (29.4%) patients were relieved after one month and 11 (16.1%) were completely relieved after 45 days therapy. Extensive methodological study is suggested to further explore the potentiality of potassium citrate in the treatment of RLS, as very few references could be searched out which are consistent with the results of the present study.