It's out! I haven't read it yet as it's 82 pages long. But everyone needs to read this. Especially if you're on a Dopamine agonist.
scholar.google.com/scholar_...
winkelman-et-al-2024-treatment-of-restless-legs-syndrome-and-periodic-limb-movement-disorder-an-american-academy-of-1.pdf
I just skimmed it and it certainly covered a lot of things besides medicine - eg red light therapy, TMS, CBT, Yoga. I was disappointed that in the detail section the opioids were not really covered except tramadol.
I'll read it in full tonight. I do remember Andy Berkowski explaining why Buprenorphine wasn't mentioned in the draft guidelines. No gold standard trials had been carried out for RLS. Same for Methadone. Hopefully, they'll get funding to do trials on the long half life opioids.
There is a section on pregabalin. It follows the sections on gabapentin encarbil and gabapentin. I do think a Table of Contents would have helped better navigate the document.
You are right. It was under PICO 1 and for some reason I didn't start taking taking notes until PICO 2.
Thanks for that Jools. I skim read it also and while it's a great summary of the interventions for which there is solid evidence, it was what hasn't been studied in any depth that is of interest to me.
By this, I mean non-drug interventions such as cannabinoids, exercise, electronic stimulation, light therapy, magnesium, cryotherapy, etc. And one that isn't mentioned which i believe will prevail in time, manipulation of the gut microbiome.
As always, there's mention that more studies need to be done on special populations eg. children and pregnant women.
It seems that there is also a taskforce commissioned by the International RLS Study Group to develop consensus research criteria for PLMD. "These consensus criteria will standardize assessment for a disorder in which diagnosis has historically been challenged by numerous clinical confounders. The introduction of these criteria will allow studies to be conducted to outline prevalence of PLMD and then beyond these studies to assess efficacy of different treatments of PLMD."
A minor annoyance...the layout of the paper doesn't make for easy reading. The various sections could be better differentiated.
Overall, I believe that the Taskforce has done a great job in developing this latest guidance.
I agree Amrob.I still haven't read it in detail. I knew that methadone and Buprenorphine weren't included and that is a huge disappointment for those of us with refractory RLS.
However, it will hopefully sound the death knell for dopaminergic drugs and force all those neurologists still prescribing them to think.....
Negligence and malpractice actions are more likely to be successful if there is such esteemed evidence AGAINST these drugs.
It will hopefully be the start of a new era.
Fingers 🤞
It does mention near infrared light therapy and said benefits outweigh harms.
Thank you but I'm aware of that. I didn't say it hadn't been mentioned in the paper, I said "what hasn't been studied in any depth... is of interest to me". Infrared therapy for RLS hasn't been studied in any depth.
Ahh - I missed that point as it wasn't in my notes.
Joolsg—always look forward to your insights. I was surprised by a couple of things…the positive comments for CBT being one.
Potassium citrate studies
My Dislike For Lyrica Grows by The Day
American RLS study 
Lack of sleep
