The association between restless leg syndrome and anxiety in Parkinson’s disease: a case-control study

ABSTRACT

Objective

To shed light on the association between restless leg syndrome (RLS) and anxiety in Parkinson’s disease (PD) population.

Methods

This was a case-control study including 129 PD participants with and without anxiety who presented to the Aerospace Center Hospital in Beijing, China. Anxiety was evaluated by using the Beck Anxiety Index score. RLS was assessed using the minimal diagnostic criteria of the International Restless Legs Study Group and RLS symptom frequency and treatment. We then examined the relationship between RLS and anxiety by logistic regression models and subgroup as well as interaction analyses.

Results

The proportion of RLS in PD with anxiety was significantly higher in the PD without anxiety (p < 0.001). The multivariate logistic regression models indicated that PD participants with RLS had a 5.98-fold higher risk of anxiety in PD than those without RLS (OR, 6.98; 95% CI, 2.77–17.59). Subgroup analyses indicated that PD with RLS tended to be associated with a greater risk of anxiety in all stratified subgroups (adjusted ORs >1). Furthermore, the interaction analyses revealed no interactive role in the association between RLS and anxiety.

Conclusions

The present case-control study suggests that RLS is an independent risk factor for anxiety in PD patients. Early attention and targeted treatment for RLS may be necessary for mood management in PD. Larger prospective cohort studies are wanted to validate these findings.

KEYWORDS:

• Parkinson disease
• restless legs syndrome
• anxiety
• association

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors)

Data availability statement

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be available from the corresponding author upon reasonable.

Ethics statement

Our study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Aerospace Center Hospital. We obtained a written informed consent from all participants.

Additional information

Funding

The authors reported that there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Notes on contributors

Lvming Zhang

LZ and ZW conceived the study, participated in the design, performed statistical analyses and drafted the manuscript. LZ, ZW, XH and LC collected the data, and drafted the manuscript. LZ, PW and JL analyzed and interpreted the data results. JD participated in the design and helped to revise the manuscript critically for important intellectual content. All authors read and approved the final manuscript and reviewed this manuscript.