title: Quantitative comparison of barbiturates in essential hand and head tremor.
abstract: The tremorolytic effects of primidone and phenobarbital in essential tremor of hands and head were compared in a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Quantitative measurements of tremor were obtained in 15 patients by means of an accelerometric method. Only primidone proved to be superior to placebo in reducing hand tremor, suggesting that its tremorolytic effectiveness is largely dependent on the parent drug rather than its metabolite phenobarbital. Head tremor tended to improve only in three out of six patients with both primidone and phenobarbital, but, likely due to the small number of affected patients, the effect failed to reach statistical significance.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neurology, University of Parma, Italy.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sasso
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Perucca
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fava
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Calzetti
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D004334:Drug Administration Schedule; D005260:Female; D006225:Hand; D006257:Head; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008838:Microcomputers; D008875:Middle Aged; D009460:Neurologic Examination / Q000295:instrumentation; D010634:Phenobarbital / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D011324:Primidone / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation; D014202:Tremor / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D011324:Primidone; D010634:Phenobarbital