Objective: To examine the correlation between cognition and other clinical characteristics (motor and non-motor) in people with Essential Tremor. To examine the correlation between cognition and other clinical characteristics (motor and non-motor) in people with Essential Tremor.

Background: Essential tremor (ET) is a syndrome of isolated tremor of both upper limbs with a duration of at least 3 years, with or without tremor in other locations such as head, larynx or lower limbs (1). Individuals with Essential tremor (ET)  may have non-tremor  motor and non- motor symptoms including gait impairment, depression, anxiety, cognitive dysfunction and fatigue. There are no studies that characterize the clinical and demographic characteristics of Jordanian patients with essential tremor.

Method: 18 patients with ET were enrolled in the study. The Essential Tremor Rating Assessment Scale (TETRAS) was used to evaluate tremor severity, Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT) was used to evaluate cognitive function, digital hand-dynamometer was used to evaluate grip strength, Parkinson’s Fatigue scale (PFS) was used to assess fatigue. Fall Efficacy Scale- International (FES-I) was used to evaluate the perceived concern about falling, and Ten-meter walking test (TMW) was used to evaluate walking speed. Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient was computed to assess the relationship between the cognitive functions scores and other clinical motor characteristics of ET.

Results: Preliminary results revealed that cognition was correlated with a number of clinical motor characteristics. There was a moderate positive correlation between cognition and grip strength; Higher scores of cognitive functions were correlated with higher scores of grip strength (r= 0.521, p= 0.027) (r= 0.495, p= 0.037) for dominant and non-dominant hands respectively.  On the other hand, there was a moderate negative correlation between cognition scores with overall tremor severity scale (r= -0.522, p= 0.026), perceived concern about falling (r= -0.600, p= 0.008) and walking speed (r= -0.542, p= 0.025). Increase in cognitive functions’ scores was correlated with decrease in tremor severity scale, perceived concern about falling, and slower walking speed.

Conclusion: There was a significant clinical relation between cognition and certain motor clinical features in individuals with ET. This needs to be studied, interpreted and utilized in clinical practice.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/association-of-cognition-and-other-clinical-characteristics-of-individuals-with-essential-tremors/