ABSTRACT
In 1945, the thesis ‘‘Restless Legs. A Clinical Study of a Hitherto Overlooked Disease in the Legs’’ was published by the Swedish neurologist Ekbom (3). Thus, Ekbom coined the name of this disorder and wrote what is still considered to be the most substantial and comprehensive work on RLS. Ekbom questioned both what he called ‘‘normal series’’ of 503 persons about restlessness in their legs and a sample of 503 from the neurologic outpatient service. The normal series was composed partly of friends and acquaintances, medical students, nurses, hospital assistants, and the like, altogether 280 persons, and partly of 223 patients from the surgical outpatient department of the Serafimer Hospital in Stockholm, Sweden. Patients with the main complaint of paralysis, pain, or paresthesia in the legs were excluded from the neurologic outpatient group.
