New Approaches and Guidelines for Essential Tremor in Movement Disorders: David Shprecher, DO, MSci, FAAN

WATCH TIME: 5 minutes

"We're in a situation right now where we're very limited in the number of treatment options available for mild to moderate essential tremor, but we do have advancing and expanding opportunities with some of the new approaches for moderate to severe essential tremor. [This includes] the advent of the MRI guided ultrasound therapy and these newer, improved deep brain stimulation devices.”

One of the most common movement disorders among adults is essential tremor, which is commonly located in the neck or the vocal cords. Clinical features associated with the condition include cognitive impairment, psychiatric disorders, and hearing loss. For patients who are more severely affected, deep brain stimulation (DBS) has been offered as an effective option. MRI-guided high intensity focused ultrasound, typically used for patients with substantial medical comorbidities, is also another common approach that has gained momentum in recent years.¹

David Shprecher, DO, MSci, FAAN, director of movement disorders at the Banner Sun Health Research Institute, gave a talk on “Advances in Essential Tremor & Atypical Parkinsonism” at the 2nd Annual Advanced Therapeutics in Movement and Related Disorders (ATMRD) Congress, held by the PMD Alliance from June 8 to 11, 2023, in Washington, DC. In the talk session, he provided an overview of the advancements that have been developed for movement disorders and the potential therapeutics coming down the pipeline.²

Shprecher sat down in an interview with NeurologyLive® to discuss some of the challenges that are associated with the current treatment options for mild to moderate essential tremor. He also talked about the various types of medication in clinical trials that are showing promise for essential tremor management. In addition, he spoke about how the recent changes in the classification for criteria and development of biomarkers has impacted the diagnosis and understanding of movement disorders.

Click here for more coverage of ATMRD 2023.

REFERENCES
1. Shanker V. Essential tremor: diagnosis and management. BMJ. 2019;366:l4485. Published 2019 Aug 5. doi:10.1136/bmj.l4485
2. Shprecher, D. Advances in Essential Tremor & Atypical Parkinsonism. Presented at: ATMRD; June 9-11, 2023; Washington, DC.