Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation in restless legs syndrome: preliminary results

Abstract

Our aim was to compare the effect of high-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) over supplementary motor area with that of sham stimulation in restless legs syndrome (RLS). In this prospective study, patients were randomly assigned to either real stimulation group (11 patients), or sham stimulation group (8 patients) in a double-blinded fashion. Five patients, who were initially in the sham stimulation group, received real stimulation 1 month after the sham stimulation. One session of intervention was performed once every 3 days and total of ten sessions were done in each group. The International RLS-Rating Scale (IRLS-RS) was assessed at baseline and after 5th and 10th sessions in both groups and also in five patients in whom both sham and real stimulation were performed. A statistically significant difference was seen in the IRLS scores between real (n = 11) and sham stimulation (n = 8) after 5th and 10th sessions. The real stimulation significantly improved the IRLS-RS scores although they were unaffected by the sham stimulation. In five patients, in whom both sham and real stimulation were performed, a statistically significant improvement was seen in the IRLS-RS scores with the real stimulation and a statistically significant difference was seen in the IRLS scores between real and sham stimulation after 10th session. In conclusion, this method is safe and non-invasive, and the results of this pilot study may support that rTMS has the potential to be used in the treatment of RLS, which should be verified in larger series.