Restless legs syndrome treatment with dopaminergic drugs.

Sixteen patients with symptoms of restless legs syndrome and resulting insomnia are included in this study. They were nine women and seven men with a mean age of 50.8 years and with a mean duration of symptoms of 6.3 years. The purpose of the study is to determine the drugs that are useful for the treatment of restless legs syndrome. In 13 patients L-Dopa plus benserazide, in two patients bromocriptine, and in the remaining one patient piribedil were used orally at night approximately 1 h before bedtime. Compared with placebo these dopaminergic drugs decreased the times of waking up and staying awake periods at a statistically significant level (p changed between 0.025 and 0.01, t test). In this susceptibility of CNS there is dysfunction of the dopamine system triggered by sleep, and resting and dopaminergic potentiation by drugs affect the symptoms.