Session Information
Date: Tuesday, June 6, 2017
Session Title: Tremor
Session Time: 1:45pm-3:15pm
Location: Exhibit Hall C
Objective: To determine if depression and neuropsychiatric symptoms are more prevalent in patients with essential tremor (ET) compared with non-ET controls and if so, to establish the role of disease severity in regard to these symptoms.
Background: ET is the most prevalent movement disorder with well characterized motor symptomatology but limited data on the non-motor manifestations. While depression has been well studied in other common movement disorders such as Parkinson’s Disease, there has been limited evaluation of the prevalence of depression in ET.
Methods: We compared 104 ET subjects with 481 non-ET controls involved in the Arizona Study of Aging and Neurodegenerative Disorders. An analysis of baseline depression scales and neuropsychiatric inventory (NPI) was done between the two groups and additionally within the ET group for those with and without subjectively distressing tremors, and above and below the median duration of tremor for the group.
Results: There was no statistically significant difference in GDS, HAMD, and NPI total severity scores between ET and non-ET groups. There were also no noted differences in the NPI positive measures between the two groups, including scores for depression, anxiety, apathy, or irritability. While more subjects in the ET group seemed to be previously or currently treated for depression based on medical history, this difference did not reach statistical significance. Among the ET group with subjectively distressing tremors (UPDRS II tremor score >1), there was also no statistically significant difference reported in GDS, HAMD, and NPI total severity scores. Depression and neuropsychiatric assessment scores were also reviewed within the ET group above and below median tremor duration, as well as on severity based on FTM scale with no significant differences noted.
Conclusions: Essential tremor does not seem to be associated with a higher prevalence of depression or other neuropsychiatric symptoms compared to non-ET controls in a well categorized group from the AZSAND database.
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
S. Aslam, N. Zhang, C. Adler, J. Caviness, E. Driver-Dunckley, S. Mehta, M. Sabbagh, T. Beach, H. Shill. Essential Tremor and Depression [abstract]. Mov Disord. 2017; 32 (suppl 2). https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/essential-tremor-and-depression/. Accessed June 15, 2025.« Back to 2017 International Congress
MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/essential-tremor-and-depression/