BrainWaves #29 Not-so-benign essential tremor

MedLink Neurology Podcast is delighted to feature selected episodes from BrainWaves, courtesy of James E Siegler MD, its originator and host. BrainWaves is an academic audio podcast whose mission is to educate medical providers through clinical cases and topical reviews in neurology, medicine, and the humanities, and episodes originally aired from 2016 to 2021.

Originally released: July 18, 2017

Once heralded as "benign" essential tremor, this movement disorder is anything but. And you can see this when you talk with your neurology patients about the difficulties they encounter with dressing, eating, and even speaking--not to mention the social stigmata and cognitive dysfunction. In this BrainWaves episode, we start by describing the fundamentals of tremor and move on to the clinical features, pharmacology, and prognosis of essential tremor. BrainWaves podcasts and online content are intended for medical education only and should not be used to guide medical decision-making in routine clinical practice. Any cases discussed in this episode are fictional and do not contain any patient health-identifying information.

REFERENCES

Deuschl G, Raethjen J, Hellriegel H, Elble R. Treatment of patients with essential tremor. Lancet Neurol 2011;10(2):148-61. PMID 21256454

Louis ED. Diagnosis and management of tremor. Continuum (Minneap Minn) 2016;22(4 Movement Disorders):1143-58. PMID 27495202

Sandvik U, Koskinen LO, Lundquist A, Blomstedt P. Thalamic and subthalamic deep brain stimulation for essential tremor: where is the optimal target? Neurosurgery 2012;70(4):840-5; discussion 845-6. Erratum in: Neurosurgery 2021;88(3):707. PMID 22426044

Zesiewicz TA, Elble R, Louis ED, et al. Practice parameter: therapies for essential tremor: report of the Quality Standards Subcommittee of the American Academy of Neurology. Neurology 2005;64(12):2008-20. PMID 15972843

We believe that the principles expressed or implied in the podcast remain valid, but certain details may be superseded by evolving knowledge since the episode’s original release date.