title: Essential tremor is a neurodegenerative disease.
abstract: There are many lines of evidence supporting the idea that essential tremor is more than simply a monosymptomatic disorder and that all the clinical manifestations of this frequent disorder are sustained by a neurodegenerative process. The most important lines of evidence in favor of a neurodegenerative nature of essential tremor are: the anatomic and neuroimaging data demonstrating a pathologic process involving the cerebellum and/or brainstem; the progression of symptom severity with disease duration; and the lack of spontaneous remission of this condition. All of this evidence is supported by recent studies that are summarized in this review.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, University of Pisa, via Roma 67, 56126 Pisa, Italy. u.bonuccelli@med.unipi.it
authors.forename: Ubaldo
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Bonuccelli
mesh_terms: D002531:Cerebellum / Q000473:pathology*; D018450:Disease Progression; D020329:Essential Tremor / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D019636:Neurodegenerative Diseases / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D059906:Neuroimaging