Skip to main content

Evaluation and Management of Movement Disorders in Children

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Allergy and Sleep

Abstract

Sleep-related movement disorders (SRMD) are a group of conditions that involve simple, non-purposeful, and stereotyped movements that occur during sleep or sleep-wake transitions. In pediatric patients, these events may be concerning to parents and may be brought up during the screening for sleep disorders of the allergic child. Fortunately, the majority of these disorders are benign, require no treatment, and resolve spontaneously. Some sleep-related movement disorders, like restless legs syndrome and rhythmic movement disorder, are seen at sleep onset, while others, such as periodic limb movement disorder and benign sleep myoclonus of infancy, occur in the sleeping child. In some cases, like with bruxism, a condition may occur in either during sleep or while the child is awake. Normal variants, including hypnic jerks, hypnogogic foot tremor, and catathrenia, which may be confused with more concerning conditions, are also discussed. For each condition, diagnostic criteria and pediatric literature regarding the evaluation and treatment are reviewed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 79.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 99.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Yilmaz E, Sedky K, Bennett DS. The relationship between depressive symptoms and obstructive sleep apnea in pediatric populations: a meta-analysis. J Clin Sleep Med. 2013;9:1213–20.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  2. Allen RP, Walters AS, Montplaisir J, Hening W, Myers A, Bell TJ, Ferini-Strambi L. Restless legs syndrome prevalence and impact: REST general population study. Arch Intern Med. 2005;165:1286–92.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Berger K, Luedemann J, Trenkwalder C, John U, Kessler C. Sex and the risk of restless legs syndrome in the general population. Arch Intern Med. 2004;164:196–202.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Hogl B, Kiechl S, Willeit J, Saletu M, Frauscher B, Seppi K, Muller J, Rungger G, Gasperi A, Wenning G, Poewe W. Restless legs syndrome: a community-based study of prevalence, severity, and risk factors. Neurology. 2005;64:1920–4.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Picchietti D, Allen RP, Walters AS, Davidson JE, Myers A, Ferini-Strambi L. Restless legs syndrome: prevalence and impact in children and adolescents--the Peds REST study. Pediatrics. 2007;120:253–66.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Ohayon MM, O’hara R, Vitiello MV. Epidemiology of restless legs syndrome: a synthesis of the literature. Sleep Med Rev. 2012;16:283–95.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Montplaisir J, Boucher S, Poirier G, Lavigne G, Lapierre O, Lesperance P. Clinical, polysomnographic, and genetic characteristics of restless legs syndrome: a study of 133 patients diagnosed with new standard criteria. Mov Disord. 1997;12:61–5.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Walters AS, Hickey K, Maltzman J, Verrico T, Joseph D, Hening W, Wilson V, Chokroverty S. A questionnaire study of 138 patients with restless legs syndrome: the ‘Night-Walkers’ survey. Neurology. 1996;46:92–5.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Picchietti DL, Van Den Eeden SK, Inoue Y, Berger K. Achievements, challenges, and future perspectives of epidemiologic research in restless legs syndrome (RLS). Sleep Med. 2017;31:3–9.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Garcia-Borreguero D, Williams AM. An update on restless legs syndrome (Willis-Ekbom disease): clinical features, pathogenesis and treatment. Curr Opin Neurol. 2014;27:493–501.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Khan FH, Ahlberg CD, Chow CA, Shah DR, Koo BB. Iron, dopamine, genetics, and hormones in the pathophysiology of restless legs syndrome. J Neurol. 2017;264:1634–41.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Clemens S, Rye D, Hochman S. Restless legs syndrome: revisiting the dopamine hypothesis from the spinal cord perspective. Neurology. 2006;67:125–30.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Davis BJ, Rajput A, Rajput ML, Aul EA, Eichhorn GR. A randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled trial of iron in restless legs syndrome. Eur Neurol. 2000;43:70–5.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Allen RP, Barker PB, Wehrl FW, Song HK, Earley CJ. MRI measurement of brain iron in patients with restless legs syndrome. Neurology. 2001;56:263–5.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Garcia-Borreguero D, Larrosa O, De La Llave Y, Verger K, Masramon X, Hernandez G. Treatment of restless legs syndrome with gabapentin: a double-blind, cross-over study. Neurology. 2002;59:1573–9.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Erikson KM, Jones BC, Beard JL. Iron deficiency alters dopamine transporter functioning in rat striatum. J Nutr. 2000;130:2831–7.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Erikson KM, Jones BC, Hess EJ, Zhang Q, Beard JL. Iron deficiency decreases dopamine D1 and D2 receptors in rat brain. Pharmacol Biochem Behav. 2001;69:409–18.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Earley CJ, Ponnuru P, Wang X, Patton SM, Conner JR, Beard JL, Taub DD, Allen RP. Altered iron metabolism in lymphocytes from subjects with restless legs syndrome. Sleep. 2008;31:847–52.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  19. Jiménez-Jiménez FJ, Alonso-Navarro H, García-Martín E, Agúndez JAG. Genetics of restless legs syndrome: an update. Sleep Med Rev. 2018;39:108–21.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Allen RP, Picchietti D, Hening WA, Trenkwalder C, Walters AS, Montplaisi J, Restless Legs Syndrome, D., Epidemiology Workshop at the National Institutes of, H. & International Restless Legs Syndrome Study, G. Restless legs syndrome: diagnostic criteria, special considerations, and epidemiology. A report from the restless legs syndrome diagnosis and epidemiology workshop at the National Institutes of Health. Sleep Med. 2003;4:101–19.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Mohri I, Kato-Nishimura K, Kagitani-Shimono K, Kimura-Ohba S, Ozono K, Tachibana N, Taniike M. Evaluation of oral iron treatment in pediatric restless legs syndrome (RLS). Sleep Med. 2012;13:429–32.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Hornyak M, Trenkwalder C, Kohnen R, Scholz H. Efficacy and safety of dopamine agonists in restless legs syndrome. Sleep Med. 2012;13:228–36.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Saletu M, Anderer P, Saletu-Zyhlarz G, Prause W, Semler B, Zoghlami A, Gruber G, Hauer C, Saletu B. Restless legs syndrome (RLS) and periodic limb movement disorder (PLMD): acute placebo-controlled sleep laboratory studies with clonazepam. Eur Neuropsychopharmacol. 2001;11:153–61.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. Picchietti DL, Stevens HE. Early manifestations of restless legs syndrome in childhood and adolescence. Sleep Med. 2008;9:770–81.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. Aurora RN, Kristo DA, Bista SR, Rowley JA, Zak RS, Casey KR, Lamm CI, Tracy SL, Rosenberg RS. The treatment of restless legs syndrome and periodic limb movement disorder in adults—an update for 2012: practice parameters with an evidence-based systematic review and meta-analyses: an American Academy of Sleep Medicine Clinical Practice Guideline. Sleep. 2012;35:1039–62.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  26. AASM. International classification of sleep disorders. 3rd ed. Darien: American Academy of Sleep Medicine; 2014.

    Google Scholar 

  27. Khoury S, Carra MC, Huynh N, Montplaisir J, Lavigne GJ. Sleep bruxism-tooth grinding prevalence, characteristics and familial aggregation: a large cross-sectional survey and polysomnographic validation. Sleep. 2016;39:2049–56.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  28. Guo H, Wang T, Li X, Ma Q, Niu X, Qiu J. What sleep behaviors are associated with bruxism in children? A systematic review and meta-analysis. Sleep Breath. 2017;21(4):1013–23.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  29. Huynh NT, Desplats E, Bellerive A. Sleep bruxism in children: sleep studies correlate poorly with parental reports. Sleep Med. 2016;19:63–8.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  30. Maurer VO, Rizzi M, Bianchetti MG, Ramelli GP. Benign neonatal sleep myoclonus: a review of the literature. Pediatrics. 2010;125:e919–24.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  31. Hrastovec A, Hostnik T, Neubauer D. Benign convulsions in newborns and infants: occurrence, clinical course and prognosis. Eur J Paediatr Neurol. 2012;16:64–73.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  32. Galletti F, Brinciotti M, Emanuelli O. Familial occurrence of benign myoclonus of early infancy. Epilepsia. 1989;30:579–81.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  33. Chervin RD, Consens FB, Kutluay E. Alternating leg muscle activation during sleep and arousals: a new sleep-related motor phenomenon? Mov Disord. 2003;18:551–9.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  34. Sander HW, Geisse H, Quinto C, Sachdeo R, Chokroverty S. Sensory sleep starts. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 1998;64:690.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  35. Fusco L, Pachatz C, Cusmai R, Vigevano F. Repetitive sleep starts in neurologically impaired children: an unusual non-epileptic manifestation in otherwise epileptic subjects. Epileptic Disord. 1999;1(1):63–7.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  36. Bar C, Pedespan JM, Ghorayeb I. Catathrenia in a four-year-old boy: a first case report. Sleep Med. 2016;20:131–3.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  37. Poli F, Ricotta L, Vandi S, Franceschini C, Pizza F, Palaia V, Moghadam KK, Banal D, Vetrugno R, Thorpy MJ, Plazzi G. Catathrenia under sodium oxybate in narcolepsy with cataplexy. Sleep Breath. 2012;16:427–34.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Christopher Cielo .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Ortiz, L.E., Cielo, C. (2019). Evaluation and Management of Movement Disorders in Children. In: Fishbein, A., Sheldon, S. (eds) Allergy and Sleep. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14738-9_10

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14738-9_10

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-14737-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-14738-9

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics