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[What is Restless Legs (RLS) ?]   [Medical Opinion]   [Diagnosis] 

[Remedies]   [Remedies - Detail]   [News]

Diagnosis

 

  Essential features

• Desire to move the limbs, usually associated with paresthesias/dysesthesias

• Motor restlessness

• Exacerbation of sensorimotor features by repose, relief with activity

• Circadian variability, with the worst symptoms in the evening and early in the night

 

 

         Additional features

 

• Sleep disturbance, especially, difficulty in sleep initiation

• Involuntary movements (periodic limb movements) that can occur during sleep or rest

• Absence of associated abnormalities on neurological examination

• Clinical course: severity of syndrome increases with advancing age; onset at any age with a typically chronic and progressive course; occasional remissions; frequent onset or aggravation during pregnancy; frequent exacerbation by caffeine

• Suggestive family history consistent with dominant inheritance (but may only be elicited by direct interview of first and second degree relatives)

 

        Clinical Assessment Questions

0 = none 1 = mild 2 = moderate 3=severe 4 = very severe

Using this scale, how would you rate the following symptoms?

 

• Uncomfortable feelings in the legs and/or arms at rest in the evening or at night?

• Need or urge to move around for relief when at rest in the evening or at night?

• Uncontrollable jerks in your legs and/or arms that occur when you rest in the evening or at night?

• Difficulty in getting to sleep when you first lie down to sleep?

• Difficulty staying asleep during the night after you have first been asleep?

• Sleepiness or fogginess during the daytime?

• Excessive nocturnal movement - may be due to pain or medical condition or may be a separate sleep disorder (e.g., excessive fragmentary myoclonus in non-REM sleep)

• Hypnic jerks (sleep starts)

• Nocturnal seizures

• Nightmares or night terrors

• Movements associated with sleep-related respiratory disorders

• REM sleep behaviour disorder

• Parasomnias (e.g., sleepwalking)

• Rhythmic movement disorder (e.g., head banging)

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