Essential tremor is associated with dementia: prospective population-based study in New York.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Mild cognitive deficits, mainly in frontal-executive function and memory, have been reported in patients with essential tremor (ET). Furthermore, an association between ET and dementia has been reported in a single population-based study in Spain. This has not been confirmed elsewhere.

Objective

To determine whether baseline ET is associated with prevalent and incident dementia in an ethnically diverse, community-based sample of elders.

Methods

Community-dwelling elders in northern Manhattan were enrolled in a prospective cohort study. Baseline ET diagnoses were assigned from handwriting samples. Dementia was diagnosed at baseline and follow-up using DSM-III-R criteria.

Results

In cross-sectional analyses, 31/124 (25.0%) ET cases had prevalent dement

SUBMITTER: Thawani SP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2731620 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature