Expanding clinical dimensions of essential tremor
- Correspondence to: Professor L J Findley Essex Neurosciences Unit, Oldchurch Hospital, Romford, Essex RM7 0BE, UK; ljfindleyuk-consultants.co.uk
The non-motor manifestations of essential tremor may be important
The paper in this issue by Chatterjee et al (page 958)1 is the first large cross sectional study of personality in people with essential tremor compared with a control group. This careful study showed higher scores in the essential tremor group on the transdimensional personality questionnaire (TPQ) in the domain of harm avoidance—implying a personality with increased levels of pessimism, fearfulness, shyness, and anxiety, and easy fatigability.
Essential tremor is the commonest movement disorder seen in clinical practice and has hitherto been considered a pure motor disorder without evidence of neuronal degeneration or widespread changes in the central nervous system. The age specific prevalence is reported to be between 1% and 3% of the general population. It is often given the prefix “benign,” which is unfortunate as many affected individuals have physical, social, and psychological handicaps, and some are totally disabled.2
As with essential tremor, the …
