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Iron deficiency anemia has been linked to restless legs syndrome (RLS) and regular blood donation may lead to iron deficiency. It has been reported that blood donations may be associated with RLS. A recent study from Sweden found that 25% of the women donors were affected by RLS. However, this type of study has not been replicated in the United States. We conducted a study in our blood donation unit between September and October 2008. To identify those with RLS, we used the RLS diagnostic index questionnaire by Benes et al. The proportion of blood donors with RLS was estimated and the number of blood donations and hemoglobin levels were compared according to RLS status. One hundred and fifty one patients were interviewed; 7 patients who donated only platelets were excluded, leaving 144 patients for analysis. There were 13 (9.0%, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 4.9-14.9%) patients with RLS. Of these, 7 (4.9%, 95% CI: 2.0-9.8%) had possible RLS and 6 (4.2%, 95% CI: 1.5-8.9%) had major or clinically relevant RLS. There was no dramatic association between RLS and number of blood donations or hemoglobin level (all P >or= 0.21). In our sample of blood donors in the United States, the prevalence of major RLS was 4%. We could not demonstrate an association between RLS and the frequency of blood donation or hemoglobin level in our relatively small sample; a larger sample is needed to better identify any associations.

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Narcolepsy, a disorder of excessive daytime sleepiness that affects more than 125,000 people in the United States, is technically defined as a daytime mean sleep latency (time elapsed before falling asleep) of less than 5 minutes in conjunction with verification of rapid eye movement sleep in at least two of five daytime nap periods. Cataplexy, hypnagogic hallucinations, and sleep paralysis are frequently associated with narcolepsy. Currently, overnight polysomnography and multiple sleep latency testing in a sleep disorders laboratory are used to diagnose narcolepsy. Standard pharmacologic therapy consists of the judicious use of stimulants to improve alertness and the administration of tricyclic and other antidepressant drugs to suppress cataplexy. In addition, good sleep hygiene (a regular sleep-wake schedule, an adequate amount of sleep at night, and scheduled daytime naps) is essential for optimal management of this disorder. Patient and family education about narcolepsy and its treatment is also important. Even with use of the best available treatment regimens, many patients with narcolepsy have substantial vocational and social impairments.

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Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is a sensorimotor disorder with an age-dependent prevalence of up to 10% in the general population above 65 years of age. Affected individuals suffer from uncomfortable sensations and an urge to move in the lower limbs that occurs mainly in resting situations during the evening or at night. Moving the legs or walking leads to an improvement of symptoms. Concomitantly, patients report sleep disturbances with consequences such as reduced daytime functioning. We conducted a genome-wide association study (GWA) for RLS in 922 cases and 1,526 controls (using 301,406 SNPs) followed by a replication of 76 candidate SNPs in 3,935 cases and 5,754 controls, all of European ancestry. Herein, we identified six RLS susceptibility loci of genome-wide significance, two of them novel: an intergenic region on chromosome 2p14 (rs6747972, P = 9.03 6 10 211 , OR = 1.23) and a locus on 16q12.1 (rs3104767, P = 9.4 6 10 219 , OR = 1.35) in a linkage disequilibrium block of 140 kb containing the 59-end of TOX3 and the adjacent non-coding RNA BC034767.

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