Restless Legs Syndrome Foundation Blog

The Neurologist Prof. Dr. Mauro Manconi, Head of the Department of Sleep Medicine at the Neurocentre of Southern Switzerland of the Regional Hospital of Lugano, received the EFNA Award 2022 'Advocating for Gender Equity in Neurology' in the category "Outstanding Achievement by a Medical Professional" for his continuous and outstanding scientific work on the topic of RLS and pregnancy.

In addition to his thesis at the University of Ferrara (Italy), many of his scientific papers also deal with this topic. Time and again, he emphasised the need for an accurate diagnosis in order to recognise the syndrome and choose the optimal therapeutic strategy based on the patient's characteristics and individual needs.

As Mauro Manconi, among other things, has shown in his research the transient form of RLS in pregnancy is a significant risk factor for the development of a future chronic form of idiopathic RLS and for a new transient symptomatology in a future pregnancy. In addition, Manconi showed that women who had RLS onset before pregnancy and who had moderate or severe RLS symptoms were at increased risk for prenatal and postnatal depression. Depression, in turn, is associated with a significantly increased risk of suicide.

Manconi's achievements to benefit pregnant women and women affected by RLS included not only these insights, but also the development of appropriate guidelines for RLS, pregnancy and lactation, it has helped to ensure that concrete measures can be taken to provide rapid help and appropriate treatment to affected women and thus also to their newborns and families.

Prof. Mauro Manconi, who is also closely connected to the wider RLS patient community, has thus made an important contribution to the hitherto little-noticed problem area, has drawn attention to this highly underrecognized topic and raised awareness on the problems of pregnant women suffering from RLS thus making an important contribution to gender equality in the field of brain health.

Manconi was proposed by the European Alliance for Restless Legs Syndrome (EARLS), the federation of European RLS patient associations (www.earls.eu).

Manconi serves on the RLS Foundation’s Scientific and Medical Advisory Board and is Director at the Sleep Center, Neurocenter of Southern Switzerland, an RLS Foundation certified Quality Care Center.

BBC Reel Examines Restless Legs Syndrome

Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is a condition of the nervous system that, in its most serious form, can be highly debilitating. It is thought to affect roughly 10 percent of people worldwide, so how come it is still relatively unknown and poorly understood?

BBC Reel's Howard Timberlake goes in search of some facts and discovers that the condition, and some of the medication used to treat it, throws up more questions than it does answers.

Claudia Trenkwalder, MD, a former member of the RLS Foundation Medical Advisory Board, is featured discussing the genetics of RLS. Also mentioned is the Mayo Clinic Proceedings new guidelines making iron and alpha-2-delta ligands first-line treatment for RLS. The RLS Foundation has made these guidelines open access for free download here.

This short video points out the need for physician education about RLS. At the RLS Foundation we have developed an online physician education webinar series, and we have certified 12 RLS Quality Care Centers staffed by physicians with extensive experience in treating patients with severe RLS.

The Sleep Community Rallied

The RLS community responded quickly to a recent Action Alert to request our Representatives to sign on to a bipartisan letter in support of sleep disorders and sleep health disparities. On April 25, 2022, an amazing total of 36 U.S. Representatives signed that letter, which is very impressive by Congressional appropriations letter standards.

Meet the 36 Co-Signers

Please join us in thanking the bipartisan group of 36 Representatives who joined the letter including:

What If Your Representative Didn’t Sign On?

If your Representative did not sign on, it does NOT mean they didn’t support your request. All have the option to put in their requests using a confidential process rather than this public process. Also, if your Representative serves on the subcommittee that the letter is addressed to, they would not need to sign on. Securing these 36 co-signers could not have happened without all of the great efforts from this RLS community!

Thank You!

We extend a special thanks to Congressman Adam Schiff and his office for championing this letter once again this year. Thanks to all the Congressional Offices who responded to their constituents’ requests and signed on.

Thank you to all in the RLS community who reached out, shared their RLS story, and made their representative aware of the needs of their constituents: increased funding and more awareness for sleep disorders.