Current Projects

Restless Leg Syndrome

Principal Investigator: Christopher Earley, Johns Hopkins University

While family aggregation has long been reported in the restless legs syndrome, a clear elucidation of its presumed genetic basis has been slow in coming.  Indeed, it is gradually becoming clear that the genetic substrate of the disorder must be complex.  There are also major suggestions, including the frequency of secondary restless legs in conditions such as uremia and pregnancy, that environmental factors may play important roles in the prevalence and severity of the disorder. 

In our current RLSF-funded project, we have polled a segment of the NAS/NRC World War II twin cohort to probe for RLS symptoms and are now interviewing respondents to make more definitive diagnoses using a validated questionnaire.  Our initial results indicate that RLS symptoms are common in this cohort, but provide ample indication that there may be important environmental factors at play.  We now propose to examine differences in the background characteristics of twin pairs discordant for RLS, especially monozygotic twins.  We will utilize the extensive archived background data for these twins available at the cohort coordinating center to develop hypotheses about important differences in life experiences between affected and unaffected twins.