Essential tremor (1685)

Key points below


What is Essential tremor?

A tremor is when a muscle contracts and cannot be controlled. It causes shaking movements of one or more parts of the body. It is a nerve condition. It affects each person differently.

What should I know?

What causes Essential tremor?

The causes of Essential Tremors are not known. For some people, it may be a gene that was passed to them from their parents.

Essential Tremor happens in children for different reasons:

What are the symptoms?

Living with ET

Essential tremors are usually not dangerous to live with, but they can be very frustrating. Remember that things like caffeine, stress, and certain drugs, will make the tremors worse. Try to avoid them. Relaxing by doing like yoga, deep breathing, or biofeedback can be helpful to control the tremor.

In severe cases of essential tremor, physical therapy, occupational therapy and adaptive devices can help to improve quality of life.

How is it treated?

Some people may not need treatment if their tremor is mild. Medicine may be needed for more severe symptoms. Some medicines work better than others.

Your doctor will help you decide which medicine may be helpful.

For more information

Alert

Call your child’s doctor, nurse or clinic if you or your child have any concerns or your child has special health care needs not covered by this information.