People less than thirty years old rarely suffer from PLMD. After thirty, it becomes more common, particularly as we grow older. Men and women are equally afflicted.
What Causes It?
Little is known about what causes PLMD. The condition is often found with and/or may be caused by other medical condition such as Sleep Apnea, kidney disease, Narcolepsy, Cataplexy, drug dependency, Benzodiazepine withdrawal, barbiturate withdrawal, Neuroleptic and Dopaminergic medication, Uremia, Anemia, Iron deficiency, spinal cord injury, Diabetes mellitus and especially Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) with which it shares a number of Symptoms. Some antidepressant drugs have been found to make PLMD worse.
Diagnosing PLMD
A preliminary diasgosis can be tenatively made if your spouse complains that your limbs often twitch when you are asleep. The next step is to see your doctor and explain what is happening. Then you may be referred to a sleep lab for a sleep study or polysomnogram just as for Sleep Apnea. To rule out anemia or significant metabolic abnormalities, they may do a urine drug screen and other tests.
How Is It Treated?
PLMD at this time can not be cured but the symptoms can be treated to give the sufferer some relief. Therapy and some medications are sometimes effective. For some people, no treatment may be required especially if they sleep through the PLMD episodes and suffer few if any effects. Others can improve their condition by practicing good sleep hygiene. We will discuss Sleep Hygiene in another article.
Complications
Sleep disruption of suffers of PLMD can lead to other complications such as fatigue, insomnia and is thought to contribute to the inattention and hyperactivity of some children who have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Though minor in itself in many cases, PLMD often accompanies other more serious sleep disorders and should not be ignored.
Living with PLMD
If you find that you suffer from PLMD inform and educate your bed partner. Once they understand that you have a good medical excuse for all that nighttime twitching, it should make you relationship and sleeping easier.
References:
http://www.stonybrookhospital.com/index....
http://galactica.informatics.sunysb.edu/...
http://www.sleepnet.com/definition.html
http://www.stanford.edu/~dement/plmd.html
http://www.emedicine.com/neuro/topic523....
http://www.evms.edu/sleep/disorders-limb...
http://www.ecureme.com/emyhealth/data/Pe...
http://dreamemporium.com/sleepdisorders....
http://www.sleepscene.com/plmd.htm
Support Groups:
The Restless Legs Foundation, Inc. at http://www.rls.org/ The RLS Foundation, Inc. is a non-profit agency dedicated to supporting as many as 12 million people who suffer from RLS and to educate the medical community that this disorder is physical and treatable. It also has information on PLMD.
Southern California RLS/PLMD Support Group at http://come.to/rls/
Go To Page: 1 2
| Here's the follow-up discussion on this article: | View all related messages |
For a complete listing of article comments, questions, and other discussions related to James Foster Robinson's Sleep Disorders topic, please visit the Discussions page.