About Tremors
A Tremor is a rhythmic, involuntary muscular contraction
characterized by oscillations (to-and-fro movements) of a part
of the body.
The most common of all involuntary movements, tremors can
affect various body parts such as the hands, head, facial
structures, vocal cords, trunk, and legs; most tremors,
however, occur in the hands.
Tremors often accompanies neurological disorders associated
with aging. Although the disorder is not life-threatening, it
can be responsible for functional disability and social
embarrassment.
Treatment
There are many types of tremors and several ways in which
tremors are classified. The most common classification is
by behavioral context or position.
There are five categories of tremors within this
classification: resting, postural, kinetic, task-specific, and
psychogenic. Resting or static tremor occurs when the muscle is
at rest, for example when the hands are lying on the lap.
This type of tremor is often seen in patients with
Parkinson’s disease. Postural tremor occurs when a patient
attempts to maintain posture, such as holding the hands
outstretched.
Postural tremors include physiological tremor, essential
tremor, tremors with basal ganglia disease (also seen in
patients with Parkinson’s disease), cerebellar postural tremor,
tremors with peripheral neuropathy, post-traumatic tremor, and
alcoholic tremor.
Kinetic or intention (action) tremors occurs during
purposeful movement, for example during finger-to-nose
testing.
Task-specific tremors appears when performing goal-oriented
tasks such as handwriting, speaking, or standing. This group
consists of primary writing tremor, vocal tremor, and
orthostatic tremor.
Psychogenic tremor occurs in both older and younger
patients. The key feature of this tremor is that it
dramatically lessens or disappears when the patient is
distracted.
Prognosis
There are some treatment options available for tremors; the
appropriate treatment depends on accurate diagnosis of the
cause.
Some tremors respond to treatment of the underlying
condition, for example in some cases of psychogenic tremor
treating the patient’s underlying mental problem may cause the
tremor to disappear.
Also, patients with tremor due to Parkinson’s disease may be
treated with Levodopa drug therapy.
Symptomatic drug therapy is available for several other
tremors as well. For those cases of tremors in which there is
no effective drug treatment, physical measures such as teaching
the patient to brace the affected limb during the tremor are
sometimes useful.
Surgical intervention such as thalamotomy or deep brain
stimulation may be useful in certain cases.
Research
Public Health Authorities are currently conducting
physiological studies of patients with tremors. These studies
include classifying the tremor and providing appropriate
therapy.
Reference for Tremor Article
National Institutes of
Health
Health
Related Websites
The National Cancer
Institute
The National Eye
Institute
The National Heart, Lung,
and Blood Institute
National Institute on
Aging
National Institute of
Allergy and Infectious Diseases
National Institute of
Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases
National Institute of
Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
National Institute on Drug
Abuse
National Institute of Mental
Health
National Institute of
Neurological Disorders and Stroke
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