Treatment Options for Idiopathic Restless Legs Syndrome

Abstract

The emergence of new effective therapies for idiopathic restless legs syndrome (iRLS) or Willis–Ekbom disease (WED) during the last 15 years resulted in an exponential increase of reports regarding this syndrome and, especially, treatment options. In this review, we summarise the main findings related to neuropharmacological aspects and non-pharmacological therapies of idiopathic RLS (iRLS). As was previously reported in several guidelines, dopamine agonists (fundamentally nonergotic derivatives), gabapentin and pregabalin should be considered as first-line therapies, as well as opiates as an alternative drug group. Preliminary results suggest that several non-pharmacological therapies should be promising as alternatives or adjuvants to drug treatments.