{"doi":"10.1159/000052098","title":"Restless Legs Syndrome: A Clinical Study of 55 Patients","abstract":"<jats:p>&lt;i&gt;Background:&lt;/i&gt; Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is a common sleep disorder. In 1995, clinical criteria for the diagnosis of RLS were defined. &lt;i&gt;Objective:&lt;/i&gt; To describe the clinical spectrum in a series of unselected RLS patients meeting the new diagnostic criteria. &lt;i&gt;Methods:&lt;/i&gt; We prospectively assessed by questionnaire and clinical assessment the characteristics of 55 consecutive RLS patients (35 women, 20 men; mean age = 62 ± 16 years). &lt;i&gt;Results:&lt;/i&gt; In 27% of the patients, RLS started before the age of 20 years (early-onset RLS). Sensory disturbances were painful in 56% of patients and felt in legs (98%), arms (35%), and ‘internally’ (45%). Motor disturbances included ‘dyskinesias while awake’ (36%). Insomnia (58%) was commoner than hypersomnia (24%). In 67% of the patients, no etiology of RLS was found (idiopathic RLS). Early-onset RLS was more commonly familial (p = 0.01) and associated with ‘growing pains’ (p = 0.005) than late-onset RLS. Patients with RLS and hypersomnia were younger (p = 0.01) and less commonly had painful sensations (p = 0.04) than patients with RLS and insomnia. Patients with idiopathic RLS were younger (p = 0.004), and less commonly had insomnia (p = 0.01) than patients with symptomatic RLS. &lt;i&gt;Conclusions:&lt;/i&gt; RLS is a clinically pleomorphic syndrome, reflecting the contribution of multiple genetic and acquired factors in the pathogenesis of RLS.</jats:p>","journal":"European Neurology","year":2001,"id":671387,"datarank":7.067705231311358,"base_score":5.111987788356544,"endowment":5.111987788356544,"self_citation_contribution":0.7667981682534817,"citation_network_contribution":6.300907063057876,"self_endowment_contribution":0.7667981682534817,"citer_contribution":6.300907063057876,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":165,"citer_count":151,"citers_with_citation_signal":128,"citers_with_endowment":128,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":null,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":false,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":null,"fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1753999,"name":"Doris Mauerhofer","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1754000,"name":"Matthias Gugger","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":200616,"name":"Johannes Mathis","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1754002,"name":"Christian W. Hess","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":470203,"name":"Claudio L. Bassetti","orcid":"0000-0002-4535-0245","position":0,"is_corresponding":false}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":{"has_enrichment":true,"resolved":true,"title":"Restless Legs Syndrome: A Clinical Study of 55 Patients","abstract":"<jats:p>&lt;i&gt;Background:&lt;/i&gt; Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is a common sleep disorder. In 1995, clinical criteria for the diagnosis of RLS were defined. &lt;i&gt;Objective:&lt;/i&gt; To describe the clinical spectrum in a series of unselected RLS patients meeting the new diagnostic criteria. &lt;i&gt;Methods:&lt;/i&gt; We prospectively assessed by questionnaire and clinical assessment the characteristics of 55 consecutive RLS patients (35 women, 20 men; mean age = 62 ± 16 years). &lt;i&gt;Results:&lt;/i&gt; In 27% of the patients, RLS started before the age of 20 years (early-onset RLS). Sensory disturbances were painful in 56% of patients and felt in legs (98%), arms (35%), and ‘internally’ (45%). Motor disturbances included ‘dyskinesias while awake’ (36%). Insomnia (58%) was commoner than hypersomnia (24%). In 67% of the patients, no etiology of RLS was found (idiopathic RLS). Early-onset RLS was more commonly familial (p = 0.01) and associated with ‘growing pains’ (p = 0.005) than late-onset RLS. Patients with RLS and hypersomnia were younger (p = 0.01) and less commonly had painful sensations (p = 0.04) than patients with RLS and insomnia. Patients with idiopathic RLS were younger (p = 0.004), and less commonly had insomnia (p = 0.01) than patients with symptomatic RLS. &lt;i&gt;Conclusions:&lt;/i&gt; RLS is a clinically pleomorphic syndrome, reflecting the contribution of multiple genetic and acquired factors in the pathogenesis of RLS.</jats:p>","is_dataset_classified":null,"base_score":5.111987788356544,"endowment":5.111987788356544,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"views":0,"has_version_chain":false,"is_dataset":false,"is_oa":false,"pmid":"11244268","pmcid":null,"openalex_id":"https://openalex.org/W2005859374","authors":[],"funders":[],"total_grants":0,"fwci":3.9349,"citation_percentile":0.93819484,"influential_citations":0,"citation_trend":[{"year":2012,"count":7},{"year":2013,"count":10},{"year":2014,"count":14},{"year":2015,"count":7},{"year":2016,"count":4},{"year":2017,"count":10},{"year":2018,"count":1},{"year":2019,"count":7},{"year":2020,"count":4},{"year":2021,"count":3},{"year":2022,"count":4},{"year":2023,"count":3},{"year":2024,"count":1},{"year":2025,"count":4},{"year":2026,"count":1}],"oa_status":"closed","license":"https://www.karger.com/Services/SiteLicenses","oa_locations":[{"url":"https://www.karger.com/Article/Pdf/52098","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://doi.org/10.1159/000052098","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11244268","host_type":"repository"}],"fields_of_study":["Restless Legs Syndrome Research","Parkinson's Disease Mechanisms and Treatments","Sleep and Wakefulness Research","Adult","Aged","Diagnosis, Differential","Female","Humans","Male","Middle Aged","Neurologic Examination","Polysomnography","Restless Legs Syndrome"],"mesh_terms":["Adult","Aged","Diagnosis, Differential","Female","Humans","Male","Middle Aged","Neurologic Examination","Restless Legs Syndrome","Polysomnography"],"keywords":["Restless legs syndrome","Etiology","Neurological disorder","Insomnia","Medicine","Pediatrics","Internal medicine","Central nervous system disease","Psychiatry"],"sdg_mappings":[{"sdg_number":0,"sdg_label":"Good health and well-being"}],"linked_datasets":[],"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"database_accessions":[],"source":"live","citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-08-16T02:29:20.232369Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}