Association of restless legs syndrome, chronic motor tic disorder and migraine with aura: a case of a single family

Excerpt

Over the past 20 years there has been a growing interest in the pathophysiology and the possible association between involuntary movement disorders such as restless legs syndrome (RLS) and Tourette syndrome (TS) [1, 2]. Indeed, recent findings have found support for a common genetic background of RLS and TS. Lespérance et al. [3] reported a high prevalence of RLS in children and adolescents with TS, pointing out that the occurrence of RLS in individuals with TS seems to be linked to maternal RLS. There is, however, little data supporting the association of these syndromes with migraine [4, 5]. The study by Kwak et al. [4] suggested that patients with TS show a higher co-morbidity with migraine than in the general population. In turn, Larner [5] examined a family suffering from migraine with aura (MA) and RLS, suggesting a genetic link between the two disorders. This finding supports the hypothesis of a shared genetic aetiology of RLS and migraine proposed in a previous publication [6]. However, to the best of our knowledge, the co-morbidity of the three disorders, RLS, TS, and MA has not yet been reported. …