Tremor in the elderly: Essential and aging-related tremor.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Isolated tremor in the elderly is commonly diagnosed as essential tremor (ET). The prevalence of tremor increases steeply with increasing age, whereas hereditary tremor is becoming less common. Moreover, late-manifesting tremor seems to be associated with dementia and earlier mortality. We hypothesize that different entities underlie tremor in the elderly.

Methods

Two thousand four hundred forty-eight subjects from the Longitudinal Study of Aging Danish Twins older than 70 y answered screening questions for ET in 2001. Two thousand fifty-six (84%) participants drew Archimedes spirals to measure their tremor severity, and classical aging phenotypes were assessed. A subgroup of 276 individuals fulfilling either screening criteria for ET or being controls were person

SUBMITTER: Deuschl G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4779797 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature