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Background: The prevalence of restless legs syndrome (RLS) is lower among children than adults. This could be due to RLS manifestation later in life or false diagnoses in children caused by symptom similarity to other diseases such as attention deficient hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Objective: The aim of this study was to test the reliability and validity of a questionnaire designed to identify RLS-related symptoms in children and adolescents. Materials and methods: The questionnaire was designed for two age groups (6–12 and 13–18 years). It was distributed among 11 pediatric RLS patients and 22 healthy children and adolescents (control group). The control group answered the questionnaire twice (M1, M2; 14-day separation). Reliability was analyzed descriptively and with Spearman correlation coefficients, intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC), and test–retest variability (TRV). An index was calculated by transferring the 12 answers concerning RLS symptoms into a coding system, grading each answer between −2 and 2 and adding the grades to an index value. Low index values hint at the absence of RLS-related symptoms. Student's t‑test was used to test the difference between healthy controls and pediatric patients. Results: In the control group, 84% of answer pairs were identical between M1 and M2. Mean TRV was 8% (range: 2–16%), Spearman correlation coefficient 0.762, and ICC 0.754 (confidence interval: 0.473–0.899). Comparison between controls and pediatric RLS patients showed that RLS patients had significantly higher (p < 0.001) index values (mean ± SD: 18.8 ± 4) compared to controls (mean ± SD: −3.8 ± 7.6). Conclusion: The questionnaire can distinguish between supposedly healthy and RLS-diagnosed children and adolescents in most cases. Nonetheless, the questionnaire cannot be used alone as a diagnostic instrument. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is a sleep disorder that affects 3-4% of the population in its moderate to severe form and up to 10% in its milder form. The diagnosis is made based on clinical criteria, but a sleep laboratory study may be necessary when other sleep disorders have to be excluded. Mild and sporadic RLS can be treated by behavior measures; in more severe cases, drug therapy leads to a successful reduction of symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Periodic leg movements (PLM) are a common phenomenon in several somatic and psychiatric disorders, often related to sleep disorders. We examined the prevalence of PLM, periodic leg movement disorder (PLMD), and restless legs syndrome (RLS) in psychiatric inpatients suffering from severe sleep disturbances and tried to find possible influences of the prescribed medication. In a retrospective data analysis, we explored the patient’s records in 117 psychiatric inpatients, suffering from comorbidity with severe sleep disturbances. We found PLM was positive in 61.5% of our sample, while diagnosing PLMD in 25.6% and RLS in 19.7%. A total of 74% of our RLS patients suffered from PLM. Adding dopaminergic medication or reducing neuroleptic agents improved subjective sleep quality and lowered PLM indices in patients with persistent sleep disturbances. Age-related results showed high PLM scores in patients below 40 years. PLM occurred in more than 60% of the study group and a PLMD was found in about 25% of our patients. We found PLM indices in our younger patients relatively high in comparison with healthy adults. However, we found no statistically significant influence of the initially prescribed medication – maybe due to polypharmacy. Goal-directed addition of dopaminergic agents or the reduction of neuroleptic drugs results in lower PLM indices and improved subjective sleep quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The section presents abstracts on medical topics which include the societal burden of untreated sleep apnea, polysomnographic patterns related to the main risk factors of childhood obstructive sleep apnea syndrome, and the epidemic of obesity in children.