Thanks so much for sharing this. I wondered if I might hear from someone who did not respond to Propranolol. I am sorry that your husband (?) cannot find what works to alleviate his tremor; it truly is a pain in the rear especially when in the dominant hand. There is something called Benign Tremulous Parkinsonsim in which a person is tremor dominant and shows very slow if any progression. Maybe he falls in this category? Here's hoping!

When I was diagnosed with ET, the Propranolol did a good job of controlling my tremor until a couple of years ago. That year, I also started noting more PD like symptoms such as slowness and a little stiffness but nothing compared to the tremor. Also up to that time the tremor was only postural and kinetic, in 2008, it extended to rest and looked more like a classic pill roll.

Just to update, this is a work day, and I tend to overlap meds. However, I can say that overall, so far, I have needed less Sinemet to stay "on" and actually seem more sensitive to less of it- this is weird. So in other words, I am using less Sinemet but having dyskinesia creep in more. By the way, as a test, I took only .5 of a Propranolol this morning and it is still entirely masking the tremor in between med dosages! Additionally, I usually get one other symptom when meds wear off either slowness or rigidity, but not both. Since I have added the Propranolol, my secondary symptom is not as noticeable or bothersome. This is all telling me that somehow, the Propranolol, which I believe inhinibits our adrenals and slows down norepinephrine transport, is somehow enhancing my uptake of dopamine. I can come up with no other logical explanation. Robert, if you are following this thread, doest this seem feasible?

When I first noted that Prop. controlled my tremor yesterday (BTW, I went a full 12 hours before the tremor emerged!!), I thought maybe I do have ET and PD. However, why would Sinemet entirely control an ET tremor? Before I started the Prop., my tremor was entirely under control with only levodopa. All this says to me that is either the Propranolol work in concert somehow and greatly benefit my unique form of PD OR ET is a milder form of Parkinsonism and it is on a spectrum with Dystonia, and PD (my belief).

I don't think ET is always a separate entity from PD. Research has shown that people with longstanding ET can develop a resting tremor, they show dopamine deficiencies upon PET scan, dystonia can be a feature, along with gait disturbances. In other words, it looks like PD in many respects...

Well, all of this goes to show that researchers don't really know what PD is. We may all get here in different ways (head trauma, neurotoxin, virus, or combo thereof) but whatever does the damage manifests itself in the cardinal signs of PD but in varying degrees. All I can figure is that as we are all unique, so is our brain chemistry. In the final analysis, the current practice of just throwing dopamine our way, is clearly not enough.

Laura