Can Restless Leg Syndrome Go Away?

How to determine if restless legs syndrome can disappear?

I could, of course, rely on my own experience as a physical therapist and tell you that for some of my patients, restless legs syndrome has disappeared.

However, I find that not reliable enough. Perhaps, for example, the symptoms disappeared for a few months in my patients but reappeared afterward, without my knowledge.

I also don’t place much trust in anecdotal testimonials that one might find on the internet, claiming miraculous cures.

That’s why I preferred to rely on studies that follow people for a long time and try to control all biases as best as possible, even if it’s not perfect!

Is restless legs syndrome really the subject of studies, research?

First, know that restless legs syndrome is being studied. Here’s the number of studies published in international scientific journals specifically addressing this issue:

In total, over 3000 publications!

This seems understandable since it’s a condition that affects up to 5 to 15% of people and can significantly impair the quality of life, especially by impacting sleep (Mansur 2023).

I delved into these 3000 publications to find the most relevant ones to answer the question: can restless legs syndrome disappear?

What do studies looking at how restless legs syndrome evolves say?

A research team from Austria 🇦🇹 followed 160 people with restless legs syndrome for at least 5 years. On average, these individuals were monitored for 8 years.

Some people received treatment, and others did not:

• 68% of people had treatment at their first visit and inclusion in the study;
• 78% had treatment at their last follow-up visit.

Their most interesting results are as follows:

• symptoms improved for 5 out of 10 patients,
• they worsened for 1 out of 10 patients,
• they remained unchanged for 3 outof 10 patients.

In other words, you have more than a 50% chance that over the years, your restless legs syndrome will improve. And for some people, even without any treatment!

Here’s more precisely how the intensity of symptoms evolved:

This graph shows that 40 out of the 160 people followed no longer had any symptoms at their last visits.

The majority of individuals whose symptoms improved still took medication: levodopa and dopamine agonists (pramipexole, rotigotine, ropinirole).

These medications are prescription-only and are not covered by health insurance or supplementary insurance for restless legs syndrome (source: Vidal).

Source: Mitterling 2015

A research team from Finland 🇫🇮 also studied the evolution of restless legs syndrome. Here are their conclusions:

half of those who suffered from restless legs syndrome at least three times a week in 1996-1998 no longer suffered from this syndrome or experienced it less than once a week in 2007-2008.

Juuti 2012

Conclusion: you can therefore have good hope of being one of those 1 out of 2 individuals who no longer have symptoms or have significantly fewer symptoms, even without doing anything specific.

And can it really disappear?

Yes, restless legs syndrome can disappear.

Especially if it’s a secondary form: when it’s associated with or triggered by another condition or pathology, such as pregnancy or iron deficiency.

For example, restless legs syndrome occurs three times more often in pregnant women than in non-pregnant women. But pregnant women who develop it generally no longer experience any symptoms after childbirth.

Source: Mansur 2023

The Austrian study I mentioned earlier also shows that it can disappear even outside the context of late pregnancy.

What factors increase the chances of symptoms disappearing?

Answering this question is tantamount to asking what effective treatments are available to relieve or eliminate restless legs syndrome symptoms.

I could delve further into this if you’d like: you can indicate your desire to learn more in the comments at the end of the article.