Update Of Essential Tremor

for a long time, essential tremor was thought to be a benign disease without any pathological changes. Researchers find ET has other features except the tremor in the recent 10 years, for example, cognitive disorders, depression, anxiety, balance disorder, hearing impairment, olfactory dysfunction, sleep problems. With progress of the neuroimaging, the cerebellum is found to be affected in ET patients, so do the brainstem, red nucleus, thalamus and basal nuclei. The structural imaging studies show more widespread alterations, and the functional imaging studies that provide insights in regional cerebral blood flow and metabolism point to the cerebello-thalamo-cortical outflow pathways, with cerebellar involvement as the most consistent finding. At the same time, people notice the ET patients may have problems in their daily life or profession. The severe ones can experience lower health status or poor quality of life. The treatments of ET include two aspects, the pharmacotherapy and the non-pharmacotherapy.