Skip to content

The Effect of Magnesium Citrate Supplementation in Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS)

The Effect of Magnesium Citrate Supplementation in Patients With Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) - An Open Label, Prospective, Non Placebo Controlled Pilot Study

Status
UNKNOWN
Phases
NA
Study type
Interventional
Source
ClinicalTrials.gov
Registry ID
NCT04462796
Acronym
RLS
Enrollment
15
Registered
2020-07-08
Start date
2020-07-10
Completion date
2023-12-31
Last updated
2023-02-17

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Restless Legs Syndrome

Keywords

RLS, Magnesium Citrate, Magnesium

Brief summary

The expected results of this study will have a significant impact on the treatment of RLS/WED patients. Magnesium supplementation (if proven to be beneficial) can be utilized as an inexpensive, safer, biologically plausible alternative to dopamine agonists and α2δ calcium-channel ligands.

Detailed description

This is an open-label, prospective, non-placebo controlled pilot study. 15 subjects with a diagnosis of restless legs syndrome (ICSD-3 diagnostic criteria) will be recruited from OSF Healthcare Saint Francis Medical Center sleep center and Illinois Neurological Institute. RLS/WED patients who meet inclusion and exclusion criteria during the initial clinic visit will be offered study participation. Standard treatment options will be discussed prior to the enrollment. Patients will be reassured that not participating in the study will not affect the future care they receive at OSF HealthCare. The potential risks and benefits of the study will be provided and, if the patient is interested, informed consent will be obtained. If the subject withdraws consent or does not finish both pre and post evaluation, we will replace the subject with another new recruit. The subject will come to the clinic for 2 visits, a pre-magnesium visit and a post-magnesium visit. Following the completion of the pre-magnesium visit, the subject will be given 200 mg elemental magnesium daily (will be instructed to take with food at dinner) for 8 weeks. Both Visits the following study procedures will be performed: magnesium level, (International Restless Legs Syndrome) IRLS scale, Kohnen Restless Legs Syndrome Quality of Life Instrument (KRLS-QOL) scale and (Multiple Suggested Immobilization (MSI) test. The post magnesium visit will be schedule at the completion of the 8 week dose of magnesium.

Interventions

DIETARY_SUPPLEMENTMagnesium Citrate

Magnesium Citrate 200 mg daily

Sponsors

OSF Healthcare System
Lead SponsorOTHER

Study design

Allocation
NA
Intervention model
SINGLE_GROUP
Primary purpose
OTHER
Masking
NONE

Intervention model description

Pilot study

Eligibility

Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to 89 Years
Healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

1. Age between 18 and 89. 2. Treatment naïve patients (who are not taking RLS medications for at least 1 year) without coexisting untreated OSA. 3. Diagnosed with RLS based on ICSD -3 criteria 4. INI OSF Sleep medicine outpatient clinic patients. 5. Patients with the ability to provide informed consent.

Exclusion criteria

1. Patients who are currently taking magnesium supplements or took magnesium supplements in the last 3 months. 2. Patients not on a stable dosage of medications ( patients requiring dosage changes) that can cause PLMs or worsen RLS will be excluded ( medications include antidepressants such as SSRIs, SNRIs and TCAs and Antihistamines such as Benadryl and Allegra, etc) 3. Patients with a history of chronic kidney disease or end-stage renal disease on Hemodialysis 4. Patients with known allergies to magnesium citrate 5. Patients with congestive heart failure with an ejection fraction less than 40%, bradycardia with a resting heart rate below 60 and systolic blood pressure less than 90 mm of Hg. 6. Patients with diarrhea 7. Patients on gabapentin or pregabalin for pain syndromes 8. Pregnancy. (Absence of pregnancy will be determined via subject self-reporting only. Subject self-reporting of the absence of pregnancy is sufficient screening because the dosage of Magnesium supplement that subjects will be consuming during the study is well below the NIH Tolerable Upper Intake Levels for pregnancy \[see Dietary Recommendations below\], and has been shown to cause no fetal abnormalities or pregnancy complications at the dosage patients will consume for the study. Subjects will be encouraged to practice appropriate measures to avoid pregnancy throughout the entirety of their study participation).

Design outcomes

Primary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Subjective Improvement of Restless Legs Symptoms measured by the International Restless Legs Syndrome Scale (IRLS)Completion of Study participation at 8 weeksInternational Restless Leg Syndrome Scale. (IRLS) is a 10 question scale that subjects rate on a scale of 0-4; RLS can be classified as mild, moderate, severe and very severe, if the score is 0-10 (mild), 11-20 (moderate), 21-30 (severe) or 31-40 (very severe) respectively. The lower score reflects less symptom burden. Minimum score is 0 with a Maximum of 40.
Subjective Improvement of Restless Legs Symptoms measured by the Kohnen Kohnen Restless Legs Syndrome Quality of Life Instrument (KRLS QOL)Completion of Study participation at 8 weeksKohnen Restless Legs Syndrome Quality of Life instrument (KRLS QOL) is a self-administered validated patient-reported outcome measure with 12 questions that assess the quality of life in RLS patients. Scores range from 0-60.The lower score represents less impact of RLS symptoms on quality of life.
Objective Improvement of Restless Legs Symptoms: Multiple Suggested Immobilization test (MSI) ScoreCompletion of Study participation at 8 weeksReduction in Multiple Suggested Immobilization test (MSI) discomfort Scores, range: 0-10, with a maximum total sum of 60 per hour. Three 1 hour trials will be conducted. Periodic limb movements during wakefulness will also be measured. Periodic limb movement index (PMLI) reflects periodic limb movements per hour. PMLI value of 0 indicates absence of limb movements and higher scores are often seen in patients with severe RLS
Correlation of magnesium levels with Kohnen Restless Legs Syndrome Quality of Life Instrument (KRLS) and Multiple Suggested Immobilization test (MSI) scoresCompletion of Study participation at 8 weeksAssessment of Magnesium level, lab value will be assess. Normal values range from 1.6 - 2.6 mg/dl. The rationale of measuring serum magnesium level is to analyze whether serum magnesium levels correlate with other subjective and objective RLS outcome measures

Countries

United States

Contacts

Primary ContactAshwath R Ravisankar, MBBS
ashwath.r.ravisankar@osfhealthcare.org(309) 624-5422
Backup ContactKimberly L Hartwig, RN, BSN
kimberly.hartwig@osfhealthcare.org(309) 655-4229

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Feb 6, 2026