Restless Leg Syndrome Part 4 of 8
What is the prognosis of people with restless legs?
RLS is generally a lifelong condition for which there is no cure. Symptoms may gradually worsen with age, though more slowly for those with the idiopathic form of RLS than for patients who also suffer from an associated medical condition. Nevertheless, current therapies can control the disorder, minimizing symptoms and increasing periods of restful sleep. In addition, some patients have remissions, periods in which symptoms decrease or disappear for days, weeks, or months, although symptoms usually eventually reappear. A diagnosis of RLS does not indicate the onset of another neurological disease.
What research is being done?
Within the US Federal Government, the US National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), one of the National Institutes of Health, has primary responsibility for conducting and supporting research on RLS. The goal of this research is to increase scientific understanding of RLS, find improved methods of diagnosing and treating the syndrome, and discover ways to prevent it.
NINDS-supported researchers are investigating the possible role of dopamine function in RLS.
Dopamine is a chemical messenger responsible for transmitting signals between one area of the brain, the substantia nigra, and the next relay station of the brain, the corpus striatum, to produce smooth, purposeful muscle activity. Researchers suspect that impaired transmission of dopamine signals may play a role in RLS. Additional research should provide new information about how RLS occurs and may help investigators identify more successful treatment options.
The NINDS sponsored a workshop on dopamine in 1999 to help plan a course for future research on disorders such as RLS and recommend ways to advance and encourage research in this field. Participants' recommendations for further research included the development of an animal model of RLS; additional genetic, epidemiologic, and pathophysiologic investigations of RLS; efforts to define genetic and non-genetic forms of RLS; establishment of a brain tissue bank to aid investigators; continuing investigations on dopamine and RLS; and studies of PLMD as it relates to RLS.
Research on pallidotomy, a surgical procedure in which a portion of the brain called the globus pallidus is lesioned, may contribute to a greater understanding of the pathophysiology of RLS and may lead to a possible treatment. A recent study by NINDS-funded researchers showed that a patient with RLS and Parkinson's disease benefited from a pallidotomy and obtained relief from the limb discomfort caused by RLS. Additional research must be conducted to duplicate these results in other patients and to learn whether pallidotomy would be effective in RLS patients who do not also have Parkinson's disease.
In other related research, NINDS scientists are conducting studies with patients to better understand the physiological mechanisms of PLMD associated with RLS.