Arthur Scott Walters


Arthur Scott Walters is an American neurologist, a professor of neurology at the Vanderbilt [University School of Medicine] in Nashville, Tennessee, USA.

Research

Walters' research interests have focused on the nexus where sleep disorders and movement disorders meet. He is co-editor of the first book on sleep-related movement disorders in 2003 and is an author on over 200 research publications.
Under his leadership as first chair of the International Restless Legs Syndrome Study Group, the group established universal criteria for the diagnosis of RLS whose core features serve as those of its current definition as well. Under his leadership, the group also developed and validated an RLS severity rating scale which has served as the major outcome measure for the severity of RLS in most academic and pharmaceutical company studies of RLS. His other individual contributions with coauthors include writing the first full case reports of Pediatric RLS and exploring the relationship between RLS and ADHD as well as between RLS and Growing Pains. In addition, he has explored the relationship between RLS/PLMS and hypertension, heart disease and stroke the role of the endogenous opiate system in the pathogenesis of RLS and the role of inflammation and autoimmunity in the pathogenesis of RLS. He and co-investigators also performed some of the first circadian rhythm studies in RLS showing that the worsening at night and worsening at rest criteria for RLS were separate but interdependent phenomena.

Professional activities

Walters was the first chairman of the Medical Advisory Board of the , a nationwide patient support group for patients with restless legs syndrome and their families and he continues to play a role on the board. He was also first chairman of the executive committee and continuing activist in the International Restless Legs Syndrome Study Group, which is composed of over 130 physicians and scientists dedicated to research on restless legs syndrome and the allied condition periodic limb movements in sleep. He headed the American Academy of Sleep Medicine committee for the development of clinical criteria for the diagnosis of sleep related movement disorders International Classification of Sleep Disorders published in 2005 and their committee for the development of the sleep study scoring criteria for the sleep related movement disorders published in 2007. He moved to Vanderbilt University and was given a distinguished faculty medical license from the state of Tennessee in 2008.

Awards and honors

In 1998, Walters was the first recipient of the Restless Legs Syndrome Foundation's Ekbom Award. In 2005, he was named "Researcher of the Year in Medicine" at Seton Hall University. In 2010, he was given the American Academy of Neurology Sleep Science Award for excellence in sleep research.

Edited volumes - books

*