Essential tremor

Abstract

Essential tremor (ET) is a chronic, progressive neurologic disease. Its central feature is a 4- to 12-Hz kinetic tremor (i.e., tremor occurring during voluntary movement). Along with an emerging appreciation of the presence of etiological, clinical, and pathological heterogeneity, there is growing support for the notion that ET itself may be a family of diseases whose central defi ning feature is kinetic tremor of the arms, and which might more accurately be referred to as “the essential tremors”. Clinical and scientifi c advances have increasingly placed the seat of the disease in the cerebellum and cerebellar system.