title: Is essential tremor benign?
abstract: We analyzed the results of the Sickness Impact Profile, a self-reporting measure of sickness-related dysfunction in 753 essential tremor (ET) patients, 87 controls from the general population, and 145 patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). Compared with the general population, ET patients had significantly greater dysfunction in all but one category. Communication, Work, Emotional Behavior, Home Management, and Recreation and Pastimes were particularly impaired in ET. The PD patients had significantly higher dysfunction in all categories as compared with ET patients. We conclude that significant disability can occur in ET and, compared with PD, ET tends to be less severe but causes relatively greater psychosocial dysfunction.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City 66103.
authors.forename: K L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Busenbark
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Nash
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nash
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Hubble
authors.forename: W C
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Koller
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000503:physiopathology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014202:Tremor / Q000503:physiopathology*