Risk of incident dementia in essential tremor: A population-based study

Essential tremor (ET) is a late‐life neurological disease. Mild cognitive deficits as well as an association with prevalent dementia have been reported in recent case–control studies. We determined whether ET was associated with an increased risk of incident dementia. In a population‐based study of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Movement disorders 2007-08, Vol.22 (11), p.1573-1580
Main Authors: Bermejo-Pareja, Félix, Louis, Elan D., Benito-León, Julián
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Biological and medical sciences
Community Health Planning
Degenerative and inherited degenerative diseases of the nervous system. Leukodystrophies. Prion diseases
Dementia - epidemiology
Dementia - etiology
epidemiology
essential tremor
Essential Tremor - complications
Essential Tremor - epidemiology
Female
Follow-Up Studies
Humans
Incidence
incident dementia
Male
Medical sciences
Nervous system (semeiology, syndromes)
Nervous system as a whole
Neurology
Proportional Hazards Models
Prospective Studies
Psychiatric Status Rating Scales
Risk
Spain - epidemiology
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Summary:Essential tremor (ET) is a late‐life neurological disease. Mild cognitive deficits as well as an association with prevalent dementia have been reported in recent case–control studies. We determined whether ET was associated with an increased risk of incident dementia. In a population‐based study of older people in central Spain (NEDICES), nondemented ET cases and controls were followed prospectively. Incident dementia at follow‐up was diagnosed using DSM‐IV criteria and the risk of incident dementia was estimated in ET cases versus controls using Cox proportional hazards models. 3,891 participants had a mean duration of follow‐up of 3.2 years. Sixteen (7.8%) of 206 ET cases developed incident dementia versus 145 (3.9%) of 3,685 controls (unadjusted relative risk [RR] = 2.08, 95% CI = 1.24–3.50, P = 0.006 and adjusted RR = 1.66, 95% CI = 0.99–2.80, P = 0.054). In an adjusted model, ET cases with tremor onset after age 65 years were twice as likely to develop incident dementia than were controls (RR = 1.98, 95% CI = 1.14–3.45, P = 0.01), whereas ET cases with tremor onset < age 65 years and controls were equally to develop incident dementia (RR = 0.74, 95% CI = 0.19–3.20, P = 0.79). Although ET is often considered a benign condition, in this prospective, population‐based study, elderly‐onset ET was associated with an increased risk of incident dementia. The basis for this dementia, which is not known, requires additional study. © 2007 Movement Disorder Society
ISSN:0885-3185
1531-8257
DOI:10.1002/mds.21553