ABSTRACT

Restless legs syndrome (RLS) does not increase the risk of mortality nor does it have other serious health consequences aside from that associated with sleep loss. It only involves some peculiar sensori-motor symptoms that occur for a short period of the day and do not even occur every day. So why bother treating the disorder? The clinically significant morbidity of RLS involves its disruption of quality of life (QoL) more than any of its specific symptom features. RLS patients complain of sleep disruption (1) and sensory problems involving pain and discomfort (2). They may have some possible cognitive impairments (3). The first two of these clinical features, however, represent the large majority of patient complaints. In a large survey of the general population in the United States, those with moderate to severe RLS symptoms reported two types of major complaints: discomfort and pain for 88% and sleep disturbance for 76% (4). But such complaints, even when dramatic, may not be clinically significant. What indication do we have that these symptoms reported by RLS patients adversely affect normal living, thereby justifying considerable treatment efforts? Health-related QoL studies address this critical question of the clinical significance of disease-related complaints. RLS is not known to shorten life but does it significantly disrupt life? The answer for this question comes best from the QoL evaluations.