Prakash S, Vadodaria V, Chawda N, Shah CS, Prakash A. Restless head syndrome: A retrospective study. World J Methodol 2025; 15(1): 97171 [DOI: 10.5662/wjm.v15.i1.97171]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Sanjay Prakash, DM, Professor, Department of Neurology, Smt. B. K. Shah Medical Institute and Research Centre, Sumandeep Vidyapeeth, Piparia, Waghodia, Vadodara 391760, Gujarāt, India. drprakashs@yahoo.co.in
Research Domain of This Article
Clinical Neurology
Article-Type of This Article
Retrospective Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Sanjay Prakash, Varoon Vadodaria, Chetsi S Shah, Department of Neurology, Smt. B. K. Shah Medical Institute and Research Centre, Sumandeep Vidyapeeth, Vadodara 391760, Gujarāt, India
Niraj Chawda, Department of Medicine, Smt. B. K. Shah Medical Institute and Research Centre, Sumandeep Vidyapeeth, Vadodara 391760, Gujarāt, India
Anurag Prakash, Department of Medicine, Parul Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre, Parul University Waghodia, Vadodara 391760, India
Author contributions: Prakash S and Vadodaria V were involved in the conceptualization of the project, literature review, statistical analysis, and writing the original draft; Chawda N, Shah C, and Prakash A were involved in the literature review, analysis and interpretation of data, and revising the manuscript for intellectual content; all authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: The Institutional Ethics Committee approved the study (SVIEC/ON/MEDI/RP/MARCH/24135).
Informed consent statement: Written informed consent was obtained from all patients to publish this observation.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors declare no conflict of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: Anonymized data not presented herein is available upon reasonable request from the corresponding author on rational request by any qualified researcher.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Sanjay Prakash, DM, Professor, Department of Neurology, Smt. B. K. Shah Medical Institute and Research Centre, Sumandeep Vidyapeeth, Piparia, Waghodia, Vadodara 391760, Gujarāt, India. drprakashs@yahoo.co.in
Received: May 24, 2024 Revised: July 7, 2024 Accepted: July 15, 2024 Published online: March 20, 2025 Processing time: 127 Days and 18.9 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is characterized by an urge to move with an unpleasant sensation in the lower limbs. RLS typically affects the legs. However, it can also affect several other body regions, such as the arms, abdomen, face, neck, head, and genital area. There are only a few reports of the RLS variant affecting the head.
AIM
To assess the epidemiological, clinical, and other aspects of the RLS variant affecting the head.
METHODS
We conducted a retrospective study of 17 adult patients (> 18 years) who met the RLS criteria and simultaneously experienced RLS-like symptoms in the head.
RESULTS
The median age at which symptoms appeared was 41.6 years. Males and females were equally affected (1.1:1). All 17 patients had uncomfortable sensations in the lower legs. Insomnia or disturbed sleep was the most common comorbidity (n = 16, 88.2%). However, headache was the most common presenting or primary symptom (n = 10, 70.5%). Dizziness or an abnormal sensation in the head was the second most common presenting symptom (5 patients, 29.4%). Other presenting features were leg pain, backache, and generalized body pain. All patients responded favorably to dopaminergic medications.
CONCLUSION
If RLS-related unpleasant sensations and pain are felt in the head, they may be misinterpreted as headache, dizziness, or psychosomatic symptoms. RLS and headaches in a subset of patients may be two phenotypic manifestations of the same disorder.
Core Tip: Restless head syndrome is an evolving concept. If restless legs syndrome (RLS)-like symptoms are experienced in the head, they may be misinterpreted as headache, dizziness, or psychosomatic symptoms. We suggest that headaches in a subgroup of RLS patients might be part of the RLS spectrum. Such patients may respond to dopaminergic medications.
