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Previous Volume 357:703-705 August 16, 2007 Number 7 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

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Today, 350 years after its first description, the restless legs syndrome (RLS) is strangely controversial. Experts and patients alike describe RLS both as a miserably impairing disorder and as "the most common disorder you have never heard of." Critics do not regard RLS as a disorder at all but, rather, as the fabrication of an omnivorous pharmaceutical industry. RLS is a waking sensorimotor disturbance with features of both neurologic and sleep disorders. Those afflicted describe an intensely uncomfortable, overwhelming urge to move the legs (often accompanied by dysesthesias), predominantly in the evening or at night, that is present at rest . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Source Information

From the Division of Sleep Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Harvard Medical School — both in Boston.

This article (10.1056/NEJMe078129) was published at www.nejm.org on July 18, 2007.

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Vilarino-Guell, C., Farrer, M. J., Lin, S.-C., Woloshin, S., Schwartz, L. M. (2008). A Genetic Risk Factor for Periodic Limb Movements in Sleep. NEJM 358: 425-428 [Full Text]