The REM sleep behavior disorder screening questionnaire—A new diagnostic instrument

Many patients with assumed idiopathic REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD) may actually represent an early clinical manifestation of an evolving neurodegenerative disorder, such as the alpha-synucleinopathies, Parkinson's disease or multiple system atrophy. Early detection of these patients is clinically relevant for long-term prospective as well as future neuroprotective studies. For this purpose, we validated a 10-item patient self-rating questionnaire (maximum total score 13 points) covering the clinical features of RBD. The RBD screening questionnaire (RBDSQ) was applied to 54 patients with polysomnographically confirmed RBD (29 men; mean age 53.7 +/- 15.8 years), 160 control subjects (81 men; mean age 50.8…