[Topiramate in the treatment of essential tremor]

Therapeutic efficacy of topiramate in essential tremor (ET) was assessed in comparison with propranolol in two groups which included 24 and 20 patients, respectively, aged from 21 to 83 years (mean age 53 years). Along with clinical examination, a number of scales: Clinical rating scale for tremor, scale of functional disturbances and Visual-analogous scale have been administered. The efficacy of topiramate was comparable to that of propranolol in 83% and 75% cases, respectively. However topiramate has some therapeutic advantages compared to propranolol; it may be prescribed for all clinical forms regardless of sex (its efficacy is higher in women), age and illness duration, both in earlier and later onset, familial and sporadic variants of ET (propranolol is more effective in patients with family history of ET). Moreover, in contrast to propranolol, topiramate may be prescribed to patients with predisposition to arterial hypertension and bradicardia, bronchial spasms of diabetes mellitus and heart rhythm disturbances.