Abstract

Objectives: Essential tremor (ET), characterized by postural and kinetic tremor seen on hands and arms, is the most common movement disorder that causes significant disability. Besides the motor symptoms such as tremor, ET is also often accompanied by psychiatric symptoms such as anxiety and depression. We identified our objectives as to compare the level of anxiety and depression in young male patients with ET with the normal and to determine the relationship between this level and tremor severity and duration of illness.
Method: 37 male patients with ET those admitted to neurology clinic of our hospital and diagnosed according to Washington Heights-Inwood Genetic Study of Essential Tremor (WHIGET) diagnostic criteria and 32 healthy volunteers that matched for age, gender and education level with this patient group were included in this study. The tremor severity scores of ET patients were determined. Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) were applied to both groups. The results were compared between two groups.
Results: Both groups were similar in terms of the age and level of education. The BAI and BDI scores of the patient group were 21.83±13.01 and 17.45±1.66 in order, and 11.03±9.19 and 9.68±8.67 in the control group. The BAI and BDI scores of the patient group were significantly higher than the control group (in order p: 0.000 and p: 0.003). Both the BAI and BDI scores didn’t correlate with the disease duration and total tremor scores.
Conclusion: The level of anxiety and depression was significantly higher in young male patients with ET according to control group. The anxiety and depression scores and the duration of illness and tremor severity were not correlated.

Key words: Essential Tremor, anxiety, depression