Chronic back pain cured by low-dose levodopa: is it a variant of restless legs syndrome?

J Pain Res

Department of Neurology, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.

Published: February 2018

Chronic back pain is one of the most common reasons for missed work and visits to the doctor. This report presents 2 interesting cases of chronic back pain that were effectively relieved by low-dose levodopa. These 2 patients showed no sign of anatomical problem of the spine or relative structures, but the discomforts on the back manifested some characteristics resembling those in restless legs syndrome (RLS), and one of them actually developed RLS after many years of back problem. We believe that this type of chronic back pain might be a variant of RLS, which we would like to call "restless back", and it can be effectively treated by dopaminergic drugs.

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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5799854PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/JPR.S156894DOI Listing

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