Pathogenetic heterogeneity of restless legs syndrome in Parkinson’s disease

In order to clarify the pathogenetic heterogeneity of restless legs syndrome (RLS), we compared the clinical characteristics of RLS between six patients with young-onset Parkinson’s Disease (PD) and 30 with elderly-onset PD. Young-onset PD showed longer periods from the onset of PD to that of RLS than elderly-onset PD, despite a similar severity between the two groups. The rate of subjects with disappearance of RLS at the follow-up observations was significantly higher in the former group. These results suggested that RLS in young-onset PD could be milder and more transient than that in elderly-onset PD.