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Juliane Winkelmann, MD

Arch Neurol. 1999;56:1526-1527.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

INTRODUCTION

It was not until 1995 that the International Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) Study Group agreed on criteria for the definition of the diagnosis of Restless Legs Syndrome,¹ although the clinical features of the "syndrome which causes such suffering that it should be known by every physician"² had been known for several centuries. However, it was not until the 20th Century that it was recognized as an independent neurological disorder. This article cites a number of quotations from the early history of RLS to the beginning of the 20th Century when the Swedish Neurologist Karl Ekbom^3-8 investigated the syndrome extensively and presented the broad clinical picture of the disease for the first time.

CLINICAL RECOGNITION

The symptoms of restless legs associated with severe sleep disturbances were probably described for the first time in the medical literature in 1672 by the English physician Sir Thomas Willis.⁹ Originally written in Latin, the . . . [Full Text of this Article]

PATHOPHYSIOLOGY AND THERAPY

From the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Section of Neurology, Munich, Germany.