Primary writing tremor responds to unilateral thalamic deep brain stimulation

Abstract

Primary writing tremor is a task associated tremor which occurs during and interferes with handwriting. Considered in most cases to be a nonprogressive disorder, a number of patients are significantly debilitated by the disease. The pathophysiology of the disorder is not fully understood, but felt to represent a variant of either essential tremor or dystonia versus a separate entity. Treatment has been limited to medications, writing devices and botulinum toxin type A for most patients. Recently, deep brain stimulation has been reported in a few patients as an effective option for those patients with medically refractory symptoms. We report our experience in a patient with primary writing tremor who underwent successful thalamic deep brain stimulation, discuss the current theories on the pathophysiology of the disorder and review the current literature of deep brain stimulation for refractory primary writing tremor.