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The effect of vitamin D on restless legs syndrome: prospective self-controlled case study

  • Neurology • Original Article
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose

To evaluate the effect of vitamin D on severity of restless legs syndrome in patients with idiopathic restless legs syndrome (RLS).

Methods

Patients with idiopathic RLS completed questionnaires including the International Restless Legs Severity Scale (IRLSS) and were evaluated for vitamin D deficiency. Patients with deficiency of vitamin D were treated with 50,000 units per week for 2 months. At the end of the 2 months, vitamin D levels were re-measured and disease severity was re-evaluated in patients who reached adequate vitamin D level. Subgroups of IRLSS questionnaire were also analyzed.

Results

Of 35 patients enrolled, 21 (60%) had vitamin D deficiency and received vitamin D therapy. In 2 patients, vitamin D levels did not rise to sufficient levels with supplementation and these 2 patients were excluded from analysis. The remaining 19 patients showed vitamin D levels increased from 13.2 ± 4.0 to 42.8 ± 9.6 ng/mL while IRLSS improved from 24.9 ± 5.1 to 21.1 ± 2.9 points (p <0.001). Selected subscores of the IRLSS were also improved including symptom severity (p <0.001), impact on sleep (p <0.001), symptom measures (p =0.002), and disease impact measures (p <0.001). There were trends toward improvement in subscores of frequency (p =0.11) and mood (p =0.051).

Conclusions

The findings suggest that vitamin D levels should be evaluated in patients with RLS and if vitamin D deficiency is revealed, consideration should be given to replacement therapy.u

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bakirkoy Education and Research Hospital for Psychiatric and Neurological Diseases, Istanbul, Turkey

    Mesude Tutuncu

  2. Department of Neurology, Istanbul University Cerrahpaşa School of Medicine, Istanbul, Turkey

    Melih Tutuncu

Authors
  1. Mesude Tutuncu
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  2. Melih Tutuncu
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Correspondence to Mesude Tutuncu.

Ethics declarations

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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.

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Comments

An increasing interest in many mechanisms of vitamin D potentially improves symptoms of a relatively rare sleep disorder but most importantly sleep itself. The awareness of treatment options without major side effects, besides conventional dopaminergic drugs, is definitely encouraging.

Rosalia Silvestri

Messina, Italy

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Tutuncu, M., Tutuncu, M. The effect of vitamin D on restless legs syndrome: prospective self-controlled case study. Sleep Breath 24, 1101–1106 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11325-019-01984-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11325-019-01984-3

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