The Frontal Assessment Battery in RLS patients with and without augmentation

Philipp Ellmerer; Ambra Stefani; Beatrice Heim; Melanie Bergmann; Klaus Seppi; Werner Poewe; Birgit Högl; Atbin Djamshidian

doi:10.1016/j.sleep.2020.09.010

The Frontal Assessment Battery in RLS patients with and without augmentation

Sleep Med. 2020 Nov:75:456-458. doi: 10.1016/j.sleep.2020.09.010. Epub 2020 Sep 10.

Authors

Philipp Ellmerer¹, Ambra Stefani¹, Beatrice Heim¹, Melanie Bergmann¹, Klaus Seppi¹, Werner Poewe¹, Birgit Högl¹, Atbin Djamshidian²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neurology, Medical University of Innsbruck, Christoph-Probst-Platz 1, 6020, Innsbruck, Austria.
² Department of Neurology, Medical University of Innsbruck, Christoph-Probst-Platz 1, 6020, Innsbruck, Austria. Electronic address: Atbin.djamshidian-tehrani@i-med.ac.at.

PMID: 32998091
DOI: 10.1016/j.sleep.2020.09.010

Abstract

Objective: We assessed frontal executive functions in patients with RLS/WED with and without augmentation and compared the results to healthy controls.

Methods: We recruited 38 patients with RLS/WED. A total of 23 patients were treated with dopaminergic therapy and showed no signs of augmentation and 15 patients had a history of augmentation (AUG). Results were compared to 21 healthy controls. All individuals were assessed by the Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB) and the MMSE. Furthermore, impulsivity was assessed during a semi-structured interview.

Results: Patients with AUG performed worse in the FAB than healthy controls and RLS/WED patients without AUG (p = 0.001, η² = 0.201). When we assessed the subtests of the FAB separately, we found a significant difference in the subtest assessing inhibitory control (p = 0.008, η² = 0.138).

Conclusions: Our findings suggest an impaired executive function in RLS/WED patients with augmentation compared to RLS/WED patients without augmentation and healthy controls. Long term neuroplastic changes within the prefrontal cortex may be the underlying cause for these results. However, further studies in a larger sample size and with a more extensive neuropsychological test battery are needed to confirm our preliminary results.

Keywords: Augmentation; Frontal assessment battery; Impulse control disorder; Restless legs syndrome.

MeSH terms

Humans
Restless Legs Syndrome*