RLS More Common in Migraine than in Other Headache Types

Subject: RLS More Common in Migraine than in Other Headache Types

Date: 5/31/2010

Restless legs syndrome is more common in patients with migraine than in patients with other types of headache, according to a new study.

One thousand and forty-one consecutive patients reporting to a headache clinic in Taiwan underwent screening for RLS. Patients reporting RLS symptoms were interviewed by phone for ascertainment; 20 patients reporting no symptoms were also interviewed as a control.

Of the 1041 patients, headache type and RLS symptoms were present as follows:

 
headache type	total	with RLS (%) 
migraine	772	88 (11.4%) 
tension-type	218	10 (4.6%) 
cluster	51	1 (2%)

RLS was significantly more common in migraine than in either tension-type or cluster headache (p=0.002), although after adjusting for age and gender, the difference between migraine and cluster headache was no longer significant.

Comorbidity of migraine and RLS was associated with more photophobia, phonophobia, vertigo, dizziness, tinnitus, neck pain, and exacerbation due to physical activity, as well as worse depression and poorer sleep quality.

“Our findings imply that RLS is a comorbidity of migraine, but an ethnic factor may contribute to the lower frequency of RLS in our patients with migraine [versus 17%-39% in Western headache clinics]. Nevertheless, about 40% of our headache patients with RLS were clinically relevant, and more than half (57.1%) were willing to receive treatment, which suggests the influence of RLS on daily living in our headache patients,” the authors write. “The aetiology of the comorbidity of RLS in migraine patients remains unclear.”

Association between restless legs syndrome and migraine
PK Chen, JL Fuh, SP Chen, SJ Wang
J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2010;81:524-528