Key Perspectives in Diagnosing and Managing Restless Legs Syndrome

Philip M. Becker, MD, is President of Sleep Medicine Associates of Texas, PA in Dallas and Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. Dr. Becker received his medical degree from the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, followed by a residency in psychiatry at the University of Minnesota Hospitals in Minneapolis and additional training in sleep disorders at Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center in Minneapolis. He is certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology with added qualification in Sleep Medicine, and by the American Board of Sleep Medicine.
 
Author or co-author of numerous articles, book chapters, abstracts, and essays, Dr. Becker is a reviewer for SLEEP, American Family Physician, Biological Psychiatry, and Sleep Medicine, for which he is also an editorial board member. He has given more than 400 lectures to practicing physicians on topics including sleep disorders, restless legs syndrome, and sleep apnea. Dr. Becker is a member of the Sleep Research Society, the American College of Physician Executives, and the American Medical Association.  He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.  He has served as Treasurer of the American Board of Sleep Medicine and President of the Southern Sleep Society.

Dr. Rye graduated from the Medical Scientist Training Program of the University of Chicago with a doctor of philosophy in neurobiology and a medical degree.  After finishing a medical internship at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago, he completed a neurology residency as chief at the University of Chicago Hospitals in 1992. Thereafter, he moved to Emory University where he helped establish and build a program in sleep medicine, attaining the position of tenured full professor in 2010. Dr. Rye is a clinician scientist and systems neurobiologist with an interest in the pathophysiological basis and treatment of restless legs syndrome/periodic leg movements of sleep as well as the primary hypersomnias. He is a recipient of the American Academy of Neurology Sleep Science Award and Sleep Research Society Outstanding Scientific Achievement Award for his role in discovery of the first genetic determinants of restless legs, and the Narcolepsy Network Researcher of the Year in recognition of his group's recent advances in unraveling the origins of, and novel treatment paradigms for, the primary hypersomnias.

Dr. Winkelman is Associate Professor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Associate Physician in the Division of Sleep Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. He received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School and his doctorate in psychobiology from Harvard University and completed both a residency in psychiatry and a fellowship in sleep medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. He was Medical Director for the McLean Hospital Sleep Program (1991-1996) and subsequently Medical Director at the sleep laboratory at Brigham and Women's Hospital (1996-2013). Currently, he is Chief of the Sleep Disorders Clinical Research Program in the Department of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Dr. Winkelman's research has primarily focused in two areas: 1) epidemiology, physiology, cardiovascular consequences and treatment of restless legs syndrome, and 2) neurobiology and treatment of insomnia. He has lectured in and directed post-graduate medical education courses in sleep disorders nationally and internationally. Dr. Winkelman is Chair of the American Academy of Neurology practice parameter committee for the treatment of restless legs syndrome, on the executive committee of the International RLS Study Group, is an Associate Editor of Sleep and serves on the editorial boards of Sleep Medicine and CNS Drugs. He has published more than 100 articles, reviews and book chapters and is also the editor of the textbook Foundations of Psychiatric Sleep Medicine, Cambridge University Press (2011).