Abstract
<strong>Background:</strong> Several publications have focused on accompanying non-motor symptoms (NMS) in essential tremor (ET) patients; however, it remains unclear if NMS are an intrinsic part of the disease or secondary phenomena. We present the results of several neuropsychiatric tests and their impact on quality of life (QoL) in community-dwelling patients with ET. <strong>Methods:</strong> Participants were recruited via a newspaper article about ET published in the local media and on the internet. All participants completed several standard neuropsychiatric tests, including those that assess QoL. To compare differences between cases and controls, Student’s t-tests with Bonferroni-Holm post hoc tests were performed. Spearman’s correlation coefficients were also calculated. <strong>Results:</strong> We enrolled 110 patients with definite or probable ET. Highly significant changes were observed for apathy, anxiety, and cognition and negatively impacted QoL. Most aberrations were independent of tremor severity and duration. <strong>Discussion:</strong> The significant neuropsychiatric deficits and reduced QoL demonstrate a degree of illness that appears to be a non-motor phenotype rather than a secondary effect of ET. In the future, NMS should carefully be explored in ET patients as they may have an impact on QoL and treatment.
Highlights
Essential tremor (ET) is one of the most common movement disorders with a well-known and clearly defined motor phenotype.[1]
Reports in the few last years have described non-motor symptoms (NMS) in patients suffering from essential tremor (ET)
Another interesting and persistent question is whether NMS in ET are a primary disease feature or secondary reactive symptoms.[31]
Summary
Essential tremor (ET) is one of the most common movement disorders with a well-known and clearly defined motor phenotype.[1] Firstly described and understood as a monosymptomatic disease,[2] our understanding of ET symptomatology has shifted to a more complex and multidimensional phenotype.[3] ET pathology and the involved central nervous regions are uncertain. In the last few years, several publications have focused on accompanying non-motor symptoms (NMS) with a variety of cognitive and neuropsychiatric changes in ET patients. We attempted to define the pattern of NMS in ET and present the results of a large variety of neuropsychiatric tests and their impact on QoL as a test battery in ET patients recruited from the community
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