Hi,

I was diagnosed with Essential Tremor then "upgraded" to PD after five years when slowness started creeping and I now have a resting tremor. I have tremor atypical of both ET and PD tremor. Dystonia can also cause tremor but rarely in the hands. I have a family history of tremor but no reported PD.

I am no expert but have researched this exhaustively because I distrust the whole "PD machine" in the medical community. They know so little about tremor, but if you look at current research and theory is that ET and PD are different points on a spectrum disorder for some of us. Why? They no have brain scans of people with E T who show signs of slowness and tremor worsening but no loss of dopamine. There is also a Fragile X Ataxia premutation that presents as PD...patients respond to l-dopa and have dyskinesia, but on PET scan, no loss of dopamine!

What I have learned. ET most always presents in both hands and is a fine back and forth more a sideways motion. it can be action or postural (reaching for remote control) but does not ease up on using hand. PD is usually opposite; tremor is at rest only but hands do not shake when you use them. I now have all types of tremor; my hand still shakes when I use it. Oh another way to differentiate an ET from a PD tremor. HOld your hands in front of you. If it is a PD tremor, the shaking will subside for a few seconds and then start up again. This is the most recent development in revealing a PD tremor. Pretty darn scientific, huh?

Incidentally, I used Inderal (Propanalol) for the five years I had ET. It worked well even on the resting tremor of my new PD diagnosis unless the med had worn off or I was extremely nervous or anxious. I have had PD then essentially ten years, Inderal does work for my PD tremor. Mainly it suppresses "off" tremors. There is also research going back a ways that Inderal does work for PD tremor in some, so your doc needs to do a literature search before making claims. Sorry to sound harsh but doctors can harm when they claim to know something that they don't which is what happened when I was pregnant my first year of PD diagnosis. Talk about stopping meds quickly; it was hell....

I can send you citations if you like but this is just what I have retained. You can find scads of articles on tremor on PubMed.

What you have been through is the very essence of why we should each be given a SPECT scan upon diagnosis. Too many other things look like PD.

Best.

Laura