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Restless leg syndrome prevalence in epilepsy patients and its impact on quality of sleep

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Abstract

This study aimed to determine the frequency of restless leg syndrome (RLS) and other sleep-related movement disorders and their effects on sleep quality in epilepsy patients. One hundred and twenty-seven epilepsy patients were compared with 115 age-and gender-matched healthy controls. RLS was determined from the clinical characteristics of the patients according to the International RLS Study Group’s (IRLSSG) diagnostic criteria. Sleep bruxism was diagnosed based on the International Classification of Sleep Disorders, Third Edition (ICSD-3) criteria. Subjective sleep quality was evaluated with the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Poor sleep quality was more common in the epilepsy group than in the control group (42.5% versus 26.1%; p = 0.007). The epilepsy group had significantly higher PSQI total scores than the control group (p = 0.003). The frequency of RLS was higher in epileptic patients than in the control group (13.4% versus 5.2%; p = 0.024). There were no significant differences between the patient group and the control group regarding limb movement and bruxism frequency during sleep. The PSQI scores were high in epilepsy patients with RLS compared to those without RLS (p = 0.009). The frequency of habitual snoring, bruxism, and repetitive leg movement in sleep was also high in epilepsy patients with RLS compared to those without RLS (p < 0.05). The prevalence of poor sleep quality and RLS in epilepsy patients is higher than in healthy controls. Our results also show the negative impact of RLS on sleep quality in epilepsy patients. Further confirmatory studies using objective sleep tests are needed to identify the mechanisms underlying the current findings.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

The authors did not receive support from any organization for the submitted work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Neurology Department, University of Health Sciences Bakırköy Prof. Dr. Mazhar Osman Training and Research Hospital for Psychiatry, Neurology, and Neurosurgery, Zuhuratbaba Dr Tevfik Sağlam Cd, 34147, Istanbul, Turkey

    Oya Öztürk, Vasfiye Kabeloğlu & Dilek Ataklı

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  1. Oya Öztürk
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  2. Vasfiye Kabeloğlu
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by OÖ, VK and DA. The first draft of the manuscript was written by OÖ and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Oya Öztürk.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. All authors certify that they have no affiliations with or involvement in any organization or entity with any financial interest or non-financial interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript.

Ethical committee permission

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The study was approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of the University of Health Sciences Bakirköy Prof. Dr. Mazhar Osman Training and Research Hospital for Psychiatry, Neurology, and Neurosurgery (No.2019/377).

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Öztürk, O., Kabeloğlu, V. & Ataklı, D. Restless leg syndrome prevalence in epilepsy patients and its impact on quality of sleep. Sleep Biol. Rhythms 20, 413–420 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41105-022-00386-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41105-022-00386-5

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