Five Cases of Primary Writing Tremor

ABSTRACT

Primary writing tremor is considered to be a task-specific tremor occurring when handwriting. We describe the clinical and electrophysiological features of 5 patients. Two of the patients had a family history of the tremor. Alcohol was effective in reducing the tremor in 3 of the patients. Two patients showed a co-contraction and three alternate contractions between agonist and antagonist muscles. The frequency of the tremors was 5 to 6 Hz. Primidone and propranolol were effective in reducing tremor. Considering the clinical and electrophysiological features, it is suggested that primary writing tremor might be a variant of essential tremor. (J Korean Neurol Assoc 19(1):52~55, 2001