Brigham and Women's Hospital, Division of Sleep Medicine, 221 Longwood Ave, Boston, MA 02115, United States.
Sleep Med. 2013 Oct;14(10):934-42. doi: 10.1016/j.sleep.2013.05.017. Epub 2013 Aug 12.
Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is a common sensorimotor condition characterized by an urge to move the legs, worsening of symptoms at rest and during the evening/night, and improvement of symptoms with movement. Our review explores the role and impact of sensory symptoms in RLS. The phenomenology of RLS is discussed, highlighting the difficulty patients have in describing their sensations and in differentiating between sensory and motor symptoms. Sensory symptoms have a significant impact on quality of life but remain much less well understood than motor symptoms and sleep disturbances in RLS. Although RLS symptoms usually are not described as painful, sensory manifestations in RLS do share some similarities with chronic pain sensations, and RLS frequently occurs in chronic pain and neuropathic conditions. Peripheral neuropathies may account for some of the sensory disturbances in secondary RLS, while alterations in central somatosensory processing may be a more viable explanation for the sensory disturbances in primary RLS. The effectiveness of analgesics in treating RLS supports the concept of abnormal sensory modulation in RLS and suggests an overlap between pain modulatory pathways and sensory disturbances. Future studies are needed to better understand the experiential and biologic aspects of altered sensory experiences in RLS.
不宁腿综合征（RLS）是一种常见的感觉运动障碍，其特征为腿部有强烈的活动欲望，休息时和傍晚/夜间症状加重，活动后症状缓解。本综述探讨了感觉症状在 RLS 中的作用和影响。讨论了 RLS 的现象学，强调了患者在描述自己的感觉以及区分感觉和运动症状方面的困难。感觉症状对生活质量有重大影响，但与 RLS 中的运动症状和睡眠障碍相比，其了解程度要低得多。虽然 RLS 症状通常不被描述为疼痛，但 RLS 中的感觉表现确实与慢性疼痛感觉有些相似，而且 RLS 常发生在慢性疼痛和神经病变中。周围神经病变可能是继发性 RLS 中一些感觉障碍的原因，而中枢躯体感觉加工的改变可能是原发性 RLS 中感觉障碍的更可行解释。镇痛药治疗 RLS 的有效性支持 RLS 中异常感觉调制的概念，并表明疼痛调节途径和感觉障碍之间存在重叠。需要进一步的研究来更好地理解 RLS 中感觉体验改变的体验和生物学方面。
