Sertraline treatment of a child with restless leg syndrome

Restless leg syndrome (RLS) is a neurologic, sensory and motor disorder mainly characterized by an irresistible urge to move the legs generally at night. Although it is more common in older ages, a growing body of research have shown that it is also prevalent in childhood. RLS is strongly related with psychiatric disorders and this may cause confusions in diagnosis and treatment processes. In this poster, we’ll present an adolescent case who was diagnosed as having RLS and whose symptoms were fully recovered after receiving sertraline treatment. The case was an 13 year old boy whose initial complaints were an urge to move his legs especially at night and pain on his legs. He was diagnosed as restless leg syndrome in the child neurology department but consulted to child and adolescent psychiatry due to resistance to various treatments. The case was found to have comorbid major depression in psychiatric evaluation. The patient received şuoxetine treatment first but there was not an improvement in his symptoms. Secondly he was given sertraline 50 mg/day single morning dose. After four weeks of treatment both restless leg syndrome symptoms and depressive symptoms fully recovered.