• Stefan Seidel, Andreas Böck, Werner Schlegel, Arzu Kilic, Gudrun Wagner, Gloria Gelbmann, Almut Hübenthal, Incifer Kanbur, Sofia Natriashvili, Andreas Karwautz, Christian Wöber, and Ciçek Wöber-Bingöl.
• Headache Unit at the Department of Neurology, Medical University of Vienna, Austria.
• Cephalalgia. 2012 Jul 1; 32 (9): 693-9.

BackgroundPrevious studies have reported an increased frequency of restless legs syndrome (RLS) in adult migraine patients. Until now, the frequency of RLS in pediatric patients has not been investigated. We set out to assess the frequency of RLS in children and adolescents with migraine compared to headache-free controls.MethodsWe investigated 111 consecutive patients with a sole diagnosis of migraine with or without aura presenting to the Headache Unit at the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and 73 headache-free controls for the presence of RLS using a semistructured interview. In addition, we assessed the level of daytime sleepiness by means of the Epworth sleepiness scale (ESS). A second group of headache-free controls was screened for the presence of RLS using an online questionnaire.ResultsThe frequency of RLS in migraine patients was significantly higher than in controls (22% vs. 5% (p < 0.001) and 8% (p < 0.001)).DiscussionThis is the first study suggesting an association between RLS and migraine in the pediatric population. Future studies are needed to determine the extent of sleep disruption in children and adolescents with migraine and comorbid RLS.

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