Parkinson's disease and restless legs syndrome

Various sleep-related complications are common in Parkinson's disease (PD). The prevalence of restless legs syndrome (RLS) and its association with other symptoms were studied.

Altogether, 1,447 Parkinson patients, aged 43-89, participated in a questionnaire study.

The response rate was 59.0% and of these, 68% returned fully answered questionnaires (n = 577). RLS occurred in 20.3% of the PD subjects. In patients with RLS, the symptoms occurred in 81.9% at least once weekly. The degree of severity was moderate in 42.7%, severe in 23.9% and very severe in 15.4%. Daytime sleepiness, fatigue, chronic insomnia, sleep maintenance insomnia, intense dreaming, and low quality of life were more common in patients with RLS than in patients without RLS. The occurrence of early onset RLS (onset ≤ age of 45 years) was 4.2%. The occurrences of late onset (>45 years) drug naïve RLS and late onset RLS (with dopaminergic medication) were 5.4 and 10.4%, respectively.

In patients with PD, the early onset of RLS resembles idiopathic RLS with typical gender distribution and familial trait. Late onset of RLS is more common than idiopathic RLS.