Author Description

Restless legs syndrome (RLS), also known as Ekbom syndrome, is a common movement disorder with sensorimotor symptoms occurring during sleep and quiet wakefulness. Yoakum described RLS as the "most common disorder you've never heard of" and this may, unfortunately, be an appropriate description of RLS. The term "restless leg syndrome" was first introduced by Karl-Axel Ekbom, a Swedish neurologist and surgeon in 1945. RLS can present itself in primary are and secondary care, across a range of specialties, such as psychiatry, rheumatology, and sleep medicine, and in the UK, the condition remains under-recognized and often regarded as a neurosis in spite of evidence that RLS adversely affects quality of life. Inappropriate clinical history taking leads to misdiagnosis and under diagnosis and a sense that the condition may be a "manufactured" one.