Restless legs syndrome patients might suffer from impaired global cognition and attention

A new study by Shichan Wang and team shows that restless legs syndrome (RLS) is negatively connected with cognitive performance, particularly attention and global cognition. The findings of this study were published in the Journal of Neurology. 

A developing field of study examines changes in people with restless legs syndrome's cognitive performance. The results of several research looking into the connection between restless legs syndrome and cognitive performance are still up for debate. In order to clarify the association between RLS and cognition, including global cognition and several cognitive domains such as memory, executive function, attention, and spatial cognition, this meta-analysis was carried out.

From their establishment until November 2022, the EMBASE, MEDLINE, and Web of Science databases were screened for relevant entries. To determine the standard mean difference and 95% confidence intervals, the means and standard deviations of the cognitive test results were gathered.

The key findings of this study were:

The original search yielded 1437 records in total, and 16 of those records, including 4635 people, were eventually included in the systematic review and meta-analysis. 

The finding point of this study were the unfavorable correlations between RLS and both global cognition and attention. Between the RLS and control groups, there were no appreciable changes in memory, executive function), or spatial cognition. 

Furthermore, age but not sex or area had an impact on how strong the results were.

In conclusion, overall, this systematic review and meta-analysis confirmed the relationship between restless legs syndrome and different cognitive function domains, showing that RLS patients may experience problems with global cognition and attention, while the relationships between memory, executive function, and spatial cognition are still unknown. Our findings should be interpreted with caution since longitudinal clinical studies and standardized evaluation techniques are lacking. Additionally, more research is required to confirm and evaluate the relationship between RLS and cognitive performance.

Reference: 

Wang, S., Zheng, X., Huang, J., Lin, J., Yang, T., Xiao, Y., Jiang, Q., Li, C., & Shang, H. (2022). Restless legs syndrome and cognitive function among adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis. In Journal of Neurology. Springer Science and Business Media LLC. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00415-022-11484-2