title: Restless legs syndrome/Willis-Ekbom disease diagnostic criteria: updated International Restless Legs Syndrome Study Group (IRLSSG) consensus criteria--history, rationale, description, and significance.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In 2003, following a workshop at the National Institutes of Health, the International Restless Legs Syndrome Study Group (IRLSSG) developed updated diagnostic criteria for restless legs syndrome/Willis-Ekbom disease (RLS/WED). These criteria were integral to major advances in research, notably in epidemiology, biology, and treatment of RLS/WED. However, extensive review of accumulating literature based on the 2003 NIH/IRLSSG criteria led to efforts to improve the diagnostic criteria further.
  
  
  METHODS
  The clinical standards workshop, sponsored by the WED Foundation and IRLSSG in 2008, started a four-year process for updating the diagnostic criteria. That process included a rigorous review of research advances and input from clinical experts across multiple disciplines. After broad consensus was attained, the criteria were formally approved by the IRLSSG executive committee and membership.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Major changes are: (i) addition of a fifth essential criterion, differential diagnosis, to improve specificity by requiring that RLS/WED symptoms not be confused with similar symptoms from other conditions; (ii) addition of a specifier to delineate clinically significant RLS/WED; (iii) addition of course specifiers to classify RLS/WED as chronic-persistent or intermittent; and (iv) merging of the pediatric with the adult diagnostic criteria. Also discussed are supportive features and clinical aspects that are important in the diagnostic evaluation.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The IRLSSG consensus criteria for RLS/WED represent an international, interdisciplinary, and collaborative effort intended to improve clinical practice and promote further research.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Richard P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Allen
authors.affiliation: University of Illinois School of Medicine and Carle Foundation Hospital, Urbana, IL, USA. Electronic address: dpicchie@illinois.edu.
authors.forename: Daniel L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Picchietti
authors.affiliation: Sleep Research Institute, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Diego
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Garcia-Borreguero
authors.affiliation: University of Texas Medical School at Houston, Houston, TX, USA.
authors.forename: William G
authors.initials: WG
authors.lastname: Ondo
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN, USA.
authors.forename: Arthur S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Walters
authors.affiliation: Departments of Psychiatry and Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: John W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Winkelman
authors.affiliation: Sleep Disorders Center, Department of Neuroscience, Scientific Institute and University Ospedale San Raffaele, Vita-Salute University, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zucconi
authors.affiliation: Sleep Research Centre, Department of Neurology I.C., Oasi Institute (IRCCS), Troina, Italy.
authors.forename: Raffaele
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ferri
authors.affiliation: Paracelsus-Elena Hospital, Kassel, Germany; Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, Georg-August Universität, Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Trenkwalder
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.
authors.forename: Hochang B
authors.initials: HB
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012148:Restless Legs Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000266:history
keywords: Consensus; Diagnosis; Movement disorder; Neurologic disorder; Restless legs syndrome; Sleep disorder; Willis–Ekbom disease