Primary writing tremor responds to unilateral thalamic deep brain stimulation.
Primary writing tremor is a task associated tremor which occurs during and     interferes with handwriting. Considered in most cases to be a nonprogressive     disorder, a number of patients are significantly debilitated by the disease. The     pathophysiology of the disorder is not fully understood, but felt to represent a     variant of either essential tremor or dystonia versus a separate entity.     Treatment has been limited to medications, writing devices and botulinum toxin     type A for most patients. Recently, deep brain stimulation has been reported in     a few patients as an effective option for those patients with medically     refractory symptoms. We report our experience in a patient with primary writing     tremor who underwent successful thalamic deep brain stimulation, discuss the     current theories on the pathophysiology of the disorder and review the current     literature of deep brain stimulation for refractory primary writing tremor.
Mayo Clinic Arizona, Department of Neurological Surgery, Phoenix, AZ, USA.
Mark
M
Lyons
Natalya
N
Shneyder
Virgilio
V
Evidente
D000368:Aged; D046690:Deep Brain Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006236:Handwriting; D006801:Humans; D013788:Thalamus / Q000502:physiology*; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014202:Tremor / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*