ArticleJournal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry2003
Multicentre European study of thalamic stimulation in essential tremor: a six year follow up.
Article in Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry, 2003. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 57 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
57 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 262 citations in OpenAlex.
- Loss of long-term benefit from VIM-DBS in essential tremor: A secondary analysis of repeated measurements.CNS neuroscience & therapeutics · 2022Pooled it
- Outcomes and Adverse Effects of Deep Brain Stimulation on the Ventral Intermediate Nucleus in Patients with Essential Tremor.Neural plasticity · 2020Pooled it
- Treatment of essential tremor: a systematic review of evidence and recommendations from the Italian Movement Disorders Association.Journal of neurology · 2013Pooled it
- Surgical Treatment of Tremor Syndromes: A Guide to the Clinician.Movement disorders clinical practice · 2026Review
- Natural disease progression vs. DBS-related worsening in essential tremor.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- Comparative efficacy of PSA and VIM deep brain stimulation in essential tremor: a network and multilevel meta-analysis.Neurosurgical review · 2025Review
- Epidemiology and treatment patterns of essential tremor: a retrospective cohort analysis in Germany.Frontiers in neurology · 2025Article
- Awake versus asleep deep brain stimulation targeting the caudal zona incerta for essential tremor.NPJ Parkinson's disease · 2024Article
- Clinical neurophysiology in the treatment of movement disorders: IFCN handbook chapter.Clinical neurophysiology : official journal of the International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2024Review
- Deep Brain Stimulation for Orthostatic Tremor: An Observational Study.Movement disorders clinical practice · 2024Observational
- The role of the motor thalamus in deep brain stimulation for essential tremor.Neurotherapeutics : the journal of the American Society for Experimental NeuroTherapeutics · 2024Review
- Cognitive outcomes in patients with essential tremor treated with deep brain stimulation: a systematic review.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2024Review
- Management of essential tremor deep brain stimulation-induced side effects.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2024Review
- 10 Years Follow-Up of Deep Brain Stimulation in the Caudal Zona Incerta/Posterior Subthalamic Area for Essential Tremor.Movement disorders clinical practice · 2023Article
- Benefits and Risks of a Staged-Bilateral VIM Versus Unilateral VIM DBS for Essential Tremor.Movement disorders clinical practice · 2022Article
- Essential Tremor-Do We Have Better Therapeutics? A Review of Recent Advances and Future Directions.Current neurology and neuroscience reports · 2022Review
- Techniques, Indications, and Outcomes in Magnetic Resonance-guided Focused Ultrasound Thalamotomy for Tremor.Neurologia medico-chirurgica · 2021Article
- Deep Brain Stimulation for Tremor: Update on Long-Term Outcomes, Target Considerations and Future Directions.Journal of clinical medicine · 2021Review
- Optimizing deep brain stimulation based on isostable amplitude in essential tremor patient models.Journal of neural engineering · 2021Article
- Review
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThalamic stimulation is an efficient treatment for disabling essential tremor, as previously shown, but follow up has mostly been short term.
objectivesTo see whether good results can be maintained in the longer term.
methods37 patients with essential tremor had implantation of a thalamic stimulator, either unilaterally or bilaterally. The results at one year have been reported earlier. After six years, 19 patients were available for follow up. The main instrument for evaluation was the essential tremor rating scale. The patients were examined with pulse generators turned on and off.
resultsIn the majority of patients, the very good results with stimulation seen at one year were maintained after a mean of 6.5 years. The reduction in tremor scores and improvement in activities of daily living were highly significant compared with baseline and with the stimulation turned off. There were few serious adverse events. Minor side effects related to stimulation were common. Few device related complications were observed and most could be resolved.
conclusionsGood reduction in tremor can be maintained for more than six years in the majority of these severely disabled patients. Thalamic stimulation can be recommended in essential tremor where there is insufficient response to drug treatment. Surgical procedures and follow up should be concentrated in relatively few centres, which will thereby acquire a high degree of expertise.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.