OBJECTIVES: Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) is a neurological disorder that has been found to negatively impact a patient's quality of life (QoL). A number of QoL instruments specifically designed for people with RLS have appeared in the literature. The objectives of this study were to provide a comprehensive review of all the QoL instruments and to evaluate the psychometric properties and appropriateness of these instruments in RLS. METHODS: A systematic literature search was conducted by one author among literature published from January 1997 through December 2006 through Pubmed, Ovid, and ProQuest. The search was completed using terms like quality of life, health status, questionnaires, measures, scales, and restless leg syndrome. After the instruments were identified, a second search was performed for studies reporting the psychometric properties (reliability, validity, and responsiveness) of these instruments. RESULTS: The search yielded one generic and two disease-specific QoL instruments: Short Form-36, Restless Legs Syndrome-Quality of life questionnaire (RLS-QoL), and International RLS Study Group (IRLSSG). Five studies were included in the review that discussed the psychometric properties of these instruments. These instruments were tested on patients above 18 years of age, and with a diagnosis of RLS. SF-36 showed high internal consistency (0.76-0.93) and was assessed for content, concurrent, and criterion validity. The RLS-QoL was assessed for item convergent validity (item-scale correlations of = 0.4), internal consistency (0.79-0.84), and responsiveness. IRLSSG showed a high inter-examiner reliability (0.93- 0.97), internal consistency of 0.87, and high criterion, concurrent, and discriminant validity. CONCLUSION: This review confirms a limited, yet emerging use of QoL instruments in people with RLS. The review provides information about the availability and quality of available instruments in RLS, which can be of value to clinicians and other decision-makers in accurately diagnosing and treating RLS.