The Clinical Evaluation of Parkinson's Tremor

Parkinson's disease harbours many different tremors that differ in distribution, frequency, and context in which they occur. A good clinical tremor assessment is important for weighing up possible differential diagnoses of Parkinson's disease, but also to measure the severity of the tremor as a basis for further tailored treatment. This can be challenging, because Parkinson's tremor amplitude is typically very variable and context-dependent. Here, we outline how we investigate Parkinson's tremor in the clinic. We describe a simple set of clinical tasks that can be used to constrain tremor variability (cognitive and motor co-activation, several specific limb postures). This may help to adequately characterize the tremor(s) occurring in a patient with Parkinson's disease.