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What is the prognosis?

RLS is generally a disease that lasts a lifetime and no cure. Symptoms may gradually worsen with age, but more slowly for those with the idiopathic form of RLS than for patients who also suffer from associated medical condition. However, current therapies can control the disorder, decreasing symptoms and increasing periods of restful sleep.

In addition, some patients have remissions-period in which symptoms decrease or disappear for days, weeks or months, although symptoms usually eventually reappear. A diagnosis of RLS does not mean the beginning of another neurological disease.

What research is being done?

Within the Federal Government, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS, for its acronym in English), a National Institutes of Health, has primary responsibility for conducting and supporting research on RLS. The objective of this research is to increase scientific understanding of RLS, find improved methods of diagnosis and treatment of the syndrome, and discover ways to prevent it.

The NINDS-supported researchers are examining the role of dopamine function in RLS. Dopamine is the chemical messenger responsible for transmitting signals from one brain area, ie, the substantia nigra and the next relay station of the brain called the striatum or habeas stratium to produce a couple intentional muscle activity. Researchers suspect that a faulty transmission of dopamine signals may play a role in RLS. Further research should provide new information on how RLS occurs and may help investigators identify more successful treatment options.

The NINDS sponsored a workshop on dopamine in 1999 to help plan the course of future research on disorders such as RLS and recommend ways to advance and promote research in this field. The participants’ recommendations for further research included the development of an animal model of RLS, further research genetic, epidemiological and pathophysiological RLS, efforts to define genetic and nongenetic forms of RLS, the establishment of a brain tissue bank to help to researchers, the continuation of research on dopamine and RLS, and studies of PLMD as it relates to the RLS. Research on pallidotomy, a surgical procedure that injures a part of the brain called the globus pallidus, may contribute to a greater understanding of the pathophysiology of RLS and may lead to a possible treatment.

A recent study by researchers funded by the NINDS showed that a patient with RLS and Parkinson’s disease benefited from a pallidotomy and was relieved of the discomfort in the extremities caused by RLS. Additional research should be conducted to replicate these findings in other patients and to learn whether pallidotomy could be effective in patients with RLS also have not 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.

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