My wife does, and I’ve been on google, found the causes (antidepressives, pain meds, serotonin drugs, etc)…
We’ve found Gabapentin and I took some Lyrica once (for some other problem). The bottle stated it was also to help RLS. Also Iron, but I think women aren’t supposed to take it.
Anything else out there, folks?
I rub her legs 4-5 times a day and she says it helps for a little while only.
Thanks!
Q
Had it all my life. I didn’t know what it was until 15 years ago, though. I just didn’t understand why other people could lie still and go to sleep.
I took Klonopin for awhile, which is not a great solution. A new doctor suggested Mirapex, aka pramipexole dihydrochloride, which is a Parkinson’s med. It has been remarkably effective.
Mirapex has an absolute boatload of potential side effects; aside from the usual stuff like dizziness, fatigue, or crapping a lot, some are rather alarming, like “Obsessive behaviour” - compulsive eatring, gambling, shopping, stuff like that. Apparently some people will also just spontaneously fall asleep without warning, which would suck pretty bad if you were driving. Hallucinations, too. Anyway, I suffered from precisely no side effects at all.
The various folk remedies I’ve read about didn’t work. Not one of them. About the only thing I ever found helped even a tiny bit was simply getting very cold; if I could not sleep I’d go downstairs where it’s cold, get chilly, and that would abate it a little. That’s fairly normal though - of course your body’s less reactive when it’s cold.
Thanks, RickJay, for the info. YIKES on the Mirapex. My wife is highly reactive to side effects.
As an aside, she was told to take a Clonodine to lower her blood pressure, and when that stuff took effect, I didn’t recognize her: slurred speech, dizzyness, mixing up words, etc. In short, drunk.
I have since thrown those into the pharmacists’ box for old drugs.
Thanks again, and I think I remember yours as my favorite all-time post here. You know which one, right? 
Q
My wife has had good luck with ropinirole (Requip). She ended up taking a very small dose to get it to work and must take it late in the afternoon.
I have a bulging disk somewhere around where the nerve bundles come out of the spine and head down the legs. I’m not sure of the exact disk.
Anyway, the way I got diagnosed was by MRI. I had been having back pain, but the doc was just giving me prednisone. I told him one day that I had restless legs at night. That’s when he ordered the MRI.
Forgot to add that I take Opana and Gabapentin. Helps with my pain level and restless legs.
Avoid Clonodine, if at all possible; the side effects were awful. The doctor that took me off it said they’re trying to phase it out of BP meds.
I had really bad RLS for many years, though it stopped a few years ago. I take a shitload of meds; it may have stopped around the time I started taking Gabapentin for diabetic neuropathy.
I take medical marijuana for my restless leg and it works pretty well if I dose it as soon as the symptoms start. I take it as a sublingual spray (50% THC, 50% CBD). Works almost instantly.
Tramadol is very effective at relieving my RLS. 100mg at bedtime.
Ben-Gay or any other heat rub seems to work wonders for me.
Women are /more/ susceptible to anemia, and Iron supplemnts are /more/ likely to be appropriate.
Men are /less/ likely to be anemic, and /more/ likely to suffer from iron poisoning.
If she has low iron on blood test, iron is likely to help: if she doesn’t it, it’s less likely to help. (Doesn’t even have to be frankly anemic: just a bit on the low side ).
Hi, Melbourne
Thanks, she has some labwork coming up and we will pay attention to it at that time.
I too get RLS, but not to the degree she does, and my doc freaked because my HgB is one point below normal. I bought some men’s vitamins and we’ll take another look then. No bloody stools and on my last colonoscopy they found no bleeds, so who knows?
But this isn’t about me. It’s about the most important person in my life and we both appreciate your help and concern – ALL of you.
Thanks
Q
I second this. I take ropinirole, I think the smallest dose, as needed when I feel an onset and it works wonders. RLS sucks… I’ve had it my entire life. My wife had it while she was pregnant and hated it and now is a little more sympathetic to my frustration with it.
Since the OP is looking for medical advice, let’s move this to IMHO.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Just to get this out of the way- sooner or later you’ll hear about the “bar of soap under the covers” folk remedy. It’s proven to be useless for both my wife and me.
DMT works for me.
I have a related condition with the same symptoms and take Ropinirole for it, and it does help sometimes. I would not recommend trying it without trying other options first, though, like iron supplements. They absolutely are for women as well as men (I’m on a ton of it for other medical problems) but only if her iron level actually is low. Too much iron in the diet can be bad for your health (even fatal if it’s really high!) so wait for the results.
Improving your sleep is another thing that helps. Naps increase the incidence of RLS, and so does repeated waking at night.
Mirapex and Requip are very similar but Requip seems to make people sleepier, which is a good thing under the circumstances. One problem is that the drugs often working after a while (months to a year) and increasing the dose isn’t a very good idea, because the chance of side effects increases with the dosage.
I often tell people to rotate the meds every 6 months - Requip, then Mirapex, then gabapentin, you can even use Sinemet (carbidopa/levodopa), then back to Requip.
Although I always check for iron deficiency, no patients have been anemic when tested.
Gabapentin is fine for women, in fact it can be helpful for perimenopausal night sweats.
Lyrica, Klonopin, Tramadol etc are controlled substances so are a PITA to prescribe ands one can be addictive Medical marijuana is a really good idea but we can’t prescribe marijuana for RLS in my state.
Sorry for the long answer. I am a neurologist and RLS is one of the most satisfying problems to treat. The meds work well and the patients don’t die of it.
I haven’t been diagnosed, but maybe. My grandfather had it, and it is hereditary, and the occasional feeling I get like the skin on my feet is crawling does seem to be one of the big symptoms. Plus, there’s a fairly significant rate of comorbidity with ADHD (and insomnia, which I have been diagnosed with). Taking magnesium seems to help.