Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is a disorder in which the main feature is an uncontrollable urge to move the legs and sometimes other parts of the body as well. It is usually accompanied by a marked sense of discomfort or pain in the affected body part. RLS is also known as Ekbom’s syndrome or even Wittmaack-Ekbom's syndrome.
RLS is triggered by rest or inactivity. Its symptoms are temporarily relieved or suppressed by movement. It follows a pattern with symptoms most intense in the evening and night time hours.
The disorder can be relatively mild or may have profoundly disruptive effects on a patient’s sleep and daily life, and on their partner’s sleep.
It is a common condition affecting between 5 -15% of the population in Europe and USA, although it seems to be less common in Asian populations.
Most doctors will say that RLS is due to a disturbance of certain chemical pathways in the brain. Drug treatment is aimed at correcting this disturbance and it can be very successful. But all of the drug treatments available can cause serious side effects (more of this later) and you have to take them long term. However, they don’t help everyone and some people can be made worse by the drugs, and some prefer a non drug approach.
It is possible to relieve RLS effectively using a musculoskeletal approach which has the advantage of no side effects and avoids the need to take long term medication. A pilot study has shown that 75% of sufferers will have relief from RLS with 4 treatments.
NB From clinical experience it looks as though taking Ropinerole (Requip - a commonly prescribed drug for RLS) reduces the effectiveness of this approach, but there may be ways round this.
