Examination of Patients with Essential Tremor

Abstract

Tremor covers a wide spectrum of entities summarized in the 1998 consensus statement of the Movement Disorder Society. Essential tremor (ET) is the most frequent tremor. So far this is only clinically defined and objective biomarkers for the disease are lacking. Furthermore, tremorologists agree that ET is not necessarily a single entity and we may be able to identify subgroups in the future. Both these aspects emphasize the important role of the clinical description of the patients and their symptoms. This video summarizes important aspects of the description of ET. We are covering the medical history, the semiology and the tests to exclude other tremors. We are following the terminology of the consensus criteria for tremor but it also shows how we approach this condition.