Limb movements????

[SnoozeButton]

One of the recommendations on my sleep study is "trial of a dopaminergic agent to treat limb movement disorder". The study shows that I had a total of 59 limb movements with an index of 10.3 per hour of sleep (also says leg movement arousal index was 0.3 and the PLM arousal index was 0.0). My doctor did not mention prescribing meds for this so I'm wondering if this is something that will go away with CPAP therapy or do I need to ask him about addressing this, too? I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night because of a leg cramp (Charley Horse).

If there is any other information pertinent to answering this question let me know.

[echo]

Some people have reported that their limb movements cease when the CPAP therapy is successful, but there's no real way that you could verify that short of another PSG or perhaps a foray into home-video territory. Aaaaand I'm not a doctor and I don't know your personal story so this is all anecdotal.

If i were you I would just ask why the doc didn't mention the treatment option.

[Snoredog]

Limb movements are ONLY a problem IF they are associated with an arousal seen to interrupt your sleep, you can have 300 of them if they don't cause an associated arousal there is nothing to worry about. Your PLM index of .03 is nothing, nothing I'd take a drug for, the unkown adverse side effects of doing that might be worse than the disorder itself.

I've yet to see where increasing ones ferritin level reduced PLM's seen on a PSG, maybe SAG has, but I haven't seen any study yet everyone prescribes iron for it. Guys cannot take excess iron, but I have read papers where magnesium was thought to help, but no real studies to back it up and magnesium is not only difficult to take it is difficult for the body to absorb it (reason many are low on it).

[kteague]

Ditto to what Snoredog said about not taking meds if they're not disturbing your sleep. The dopamine meds usually prescribed for limb movements tend to lose effectiveness after a while so I would think it would be best to save those options for if a real need arises. There are others on here whose movements are mild and have not needed treated.

While some or all of your limb movements may go away with cpap, some with Periodic Limb Movement Disorder see an increase in movements with the OSA therapeutically treated. Just a 'heads up' so if after being on cpap for a while you're still unrested, you may want to make sure that's not an issue. But for now, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Kathy
who has a love/hate relationship with her meds

[ca_hosehead]

I've yet to see where increasing ones ferritin level reduced PLM's seen on a PSG, maybe SAG has, but I haven't seen any study yet everyone prescribes iron for it. Guys cannot take excess iron, but I have read papers where magnesium was thought to help, but no real studies to back it up and magnesium is not only difficult to take it is difficult for the body to absorb it (reason many are low on it).

I had a problem with insomnia, restless legs and some PLMD. I got down to almost unnoticeable levels with the following:

-- Iron supplements. (I did not test low for iron before or after the supplements.) There was some effect right away and then it gradually got better over several months. Don't go crazy with it as you can overdose (iron levels can go too high).
-- Calcium Magnesium supplements: This formulation http://www.calmag.com/ or something similar.
-- Eliminate caffeine or set a cutoff point early in the day. I find it takes me 12 full hours to process out caffeine. Some are sensitive and shouldn't have it at all. As you age your ability to process it out gets worse and worse.
-- CPAP
-- PMR (Progressive Muscle Relaxation)

Hard to pinpoint which one did it. It got gradually better over about 3-4 months while I was doing all of these.

I do use a video camera and it's good to have if you have a limb movement problem. You can really keep track of it that way.

[papdad]

I have had problems with low potassium in the past.

"

Usually symptoms of low potassium are mild. At times they can be vague. You may have more than one symptom involving the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, kidneys, muscles, heart, and nerves.
Weakness, tiredness, or cramping in arm or leg muscles, sometimes severe enough to cause inability to move arms or legs due to weakness (much like a paralysis)

If you have not done so, you might consider having a complete blood work-up done to check for problems.
As Snoredog pointed out, taking unnecessary iron supplements could be dangerous -- my wife has to have blood taken monthly to remove excess iron.
I have RLS and had 50.6 PLM index on my study. Have not found anything yet that really helps my RLS.
Luck, Norm