The association between restless legs syndrome and premotor symptoms of Parkinson's disease

Hirotaka Iwaki; Katherine C Hughes; Xiang Gao; Michael A Schwarzschild; Alberto Ascherio

doi:10.1016/j.jns.2018.08.028

The association between restless legs syndrome and premotor symptoms of Parkinson's disease

J Neurol Sci. 2018 Nov 15:394:41-44. doi: 10.1016/j.jns.2018.08.028. Epub 2018 Sep 1.

Authors

Hirotaka Iwaki¹, Katherine C Hughes², Xiang Gao³, Michael A Schwarzschild⁴, Alberto Ascherio⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: hii634@mail.harvard.edu.
² Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
³ Department of Nutritional Health, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA.
⁴ MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
⁵ Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA; Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.

PMID: 30212740
DOI: 10.1016/j.jns.2018.08.028

Abstract

Background: Previous studies regarding the association between restless legs syndrome (RLS) and Parkinson's disease (PD) have produced contradictory results. However, the time frame between them has varied across these studies, and also, the longitudinal trajectroy of RLS symptoms has not been considered.

Objective: To investigate if transient or continuous/recurrent RLS identified by questionnaire are associated with the premotor symptoms of PD.

Methods: The study population comprised 16,636 men in the Health Professional Follow-Up Study, who answered questions regarding RLS symptoms in both 2002 and 2008, and were not diagnosed with PD. Outcomes were self-reported constipation, possible REM sleep behavior disorder (pRBD) in 2012 and smell identification test score in 2014.

Results: RLS was associated with increased odds of constipation, but only continuous/recurrent RLS status was associated with higher odds of having pRBD. RLS was not significantly associated with olfactory scores.

Conclusion: In this large-scale longitudinal study, we found moderate associations between the presence of RLS and increased odds of having constipation and pRBD.

Keywords: Hyposmia; Parkinson's disease; Premotor symptoms; REM sleep behavior disorder; Restless legs syndrome.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Aged
Asymptomatic Diseases / epidemiology
Constipation / etiology*
Humans
Longitudinal Studies
Male
Middle Aged
Odds Ratio
Olfaction Disorders / diagnosis
Olfaction Disorders / etiology
Parkinson Disease / complications*
Parkinson Disease / epidemiology
Restless Legs Syndrome / epidemiology*
Restless Legs Syndrome / etiology*
Retrospective Studies
Surveys and Questionnaires