Prevalence of Restless Legs Syndrome in Adult ADHD and Its Subtypes

Abstract

In this observational cross-sectional study, 49 subjects were assessed for sleep disorders and for ADHD symptoms. Thirty-six received an ADHD diagnosis (29: combined type (ADHD-C); 7: inattentive type). An RLS and RLS symptoms prevalence of 34.5% was found, with a higher prevalence rate in the ADHD-C subgroup, although not significantly (p = 0.066). RLS symptoms were correlated with particularly hyperactivity-impulsivity (ρ = 0.742; p: 0.000). ADHD patients with positive RLS scores reported higher scores on the ADHD-Rating scale compared with patients with negative RLS scores (Z: -2.968, p = 0.003), mainly due to higher hyperactivity-impulsivity scores (Z: -3.145; p = 0.002). Our findings show that clinicians need to be aware of RLS among adult ADHD patients, particularly those with severe hyperactivity-impulsivity symptoms.

Sleep disorders in a naturalistic cohort of Dutch psychiatric outpatients: prevalence rates and associations with psychopathology symptom severity and well‐being

“…Prevalence of suspected SRMD was high in patients with affective disorder and type B personality disorders, which could be related to the RLS stimulating effects of many antidepressants, and atypical antipsychotics (Patatanian & Claborn, 2018; (Rottach et al, 2008; Wichniak et al, 2017). Additionally, in agreement with literature (Snitselaar et al, 2016), SRMD was commonly found in those with ADHD. One may speculate whether either the effects of stimulants prescribed for ADHD or overlap in aetiology between RLS and ADHD such as dopaminergic dysregulation could be partially responsible for this trend (Wajszilber et al, 2018).…”

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder symptom severity and sleep problems in adult participants of the Netherlands sleep registry

“…Although comparison of these prevalences with prevalences from other research is difficult due to variability in the studied samples and methodology, our prevalences of an extreme evening chronotype [30] and ID [51] were quite consistent with those from previous studies. Our prevalences of probable OSAS [52,53], RLS [19,54], ID with predominant DIS [10,30,33,55] and DMS [33,56] were within the range of other studies. Regarding PLMD [56], narcolepsy [57], ID with predominant EMA [33], and sleep 6 h [58], we observed lower prevalence rates as compared to other studies.…”

Die Aufmerksamkeitsdefizit- und Hyperaktivitätsstörung (ADHS) in der Erwachsenenpsychiatrie: Erfassung der ADHS-12-Monatsprävalenz, der Risikofaktoren und Komorbidität bei ADHS

“…Die hohe Zahl der Patienten mit Depressionen ist auch dem Umstand geschuldet, dass wir auf der von uns untersuchten Station primär Patienten mit affektiven Störungen aufnahmen. Die Patienten mit ADHS litten häufig an bipolaren Störungen, paranoiden Schizophrenien, Angststörungen, emotional-instabilen und zwanghaften Persönlichkeitsstörungen, Teilleistungsstörungen, Nikotinabhängigkeit, Substanzabhängigkeiten, Substanzmissbräuchen, Restless-legs Syndromen, Essstörungen und Adipositas, was auch andere Autoren beschrieben [2,5,7,10,11,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27]. Bei der schizoaffektiven Störung, Zwangsstörung und organischen Persönlichkeitsstörung fanden sich keine Häufungen.…”