Premium
Augmentation of restless legs syndrome with long‐term tramadol treatment
Author(s) -
Vetrugno Roberto,
La Morgia Chiara,
D'Angelo Roberto,
Loi Daniela,
Provini Federica,
Plazzi Giuseppe,
Montagna Pasquale
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
movement disorders
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.352
H-Index - 198
eISSN - 1531-8257
pISSN - 0885-3185
DOI - 10.1002/mds.21342
Subject(s) - restless legs syndrome , tramadol , medicine , term (time) , physical medicine and rehabilitation , anesthesia , psychiatry , neurology , analgesic , physics , quantum mechanics
Restless legs syndrome (RLS) augmentation, defined as a kind of suppression of the circadian rhythm of the disease in which sensory and motor symptoms appear earlier during the day (and over previously unaffected body parts), with a progressive phase advance until, backwards, the symptoms may cover the entire day, has been described only after treatment with dopaminergic drugs. We report clinical and polysomnographic accounts of a patient developing RLS augmentation after long‐term treatment with tramadol, an opioid agonist with selectivity for μ‐receptor and added norepinephrine and serotonin reuptake inhibition properties. Polysomnographic measures showed an improvement of RLS and a disappearance of diurnal sensory and motor RLS symptoms after tramadol was stopped. Our case confirms a recent retrospective report of augmentation of RLS after treatment with tramadol, and begs the question whether augmentation is truly restricted to dopaminergic drugs. © 2006 Movement Disorder Society