Methods for treating polycystic kidney disease with therapeutic renal neuromodulation and associated systems and methods are disclosed herein. One aspect of the present technology is directed to methods that at least partially inhibit sympathetic neural activity in nerves proximate a renal artery of a kidney of a patient. One or more measurable physiological parameter corresponding to the polycystic kidney disease can thereby be reduced. Moreover, central sympathetic drive in the patient can be reduced in a manner that treats the patient for the polycystic kidney disease. Renal sympathetic nerve activity can be modulated along the afferent and/or efferent pathway. The modulation can be achieved, for example, using an intravascularly positioned catheter carrying a neuromodulation assembly, e.g., a neuromodulation assembly configured to cryotherapeutically cool the renal nerve or to deliver an energy field to the renal nerve.