Hello and welcome to the zero to finals podcast. My name is Tom and in this episode I'm going to be

talking to you about benign essential tremor. And if you want to follow along with written notes on this

topic, you can follow along at zero to finals.com slash essential tremor or in the neurology section of the zero to finals medicine book.

So let's get straight into it. Benign essential tremor is a relatively common condition that's

associated with older age and it's characterized by a fine tremor that affects all the voluntary

muscles. It's most notable in the hands, but it can affect many

other areas, for example, causing a head tremor, a jaw tremor, and a vocal tremor. So what are the

features? Well, there's a fine tremor that's symmetrical, unlike in Parkinson's disease,

it's more prominent on voluntary movements. For example,

if they're trying to take a drink of a liquid or if they're using a pen to write something.

This tremor becomes worse when they're tired, when they're stressed or after having caffeine.

And it tends to improve with alcohol. and the tremor is absent during sleep because

you don't have any voluntary movements during sleep. What's the differential diagnosis of a

tremor? Benin essential tremor is diagnosed clinically based on presenting features that's important

to look for features to exclude other causes of a tremor before

you make a diagnosis.

A key differential of a tremor are Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, Huntington's

career, hyperthyroidism can cause a fine tremor, fevers and medications such as antipsychotics.

It's also management of benign essential tremor.

Well, there's no definitive treatment or cure for the condition.

Equally, the tremor isn't harmful and it doesn't require treatment if it's not causing any functional or psychological problems.

But medications that can be tried to improve the symptoms are non-selective beta blockers like propanol,

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