Essential tremor is one of the most common movement disorders with the prevalence of 3-5% among the elderly population. Although its main clinical feature is the bilateral, predominantly postural-kinetic tremor, newer studies suggest that ET is a spectrum of clinical features with both motor and nonmotor elements not homogeneously distributed.~Despite its high occurrence, the pharmacological treatment of ET is limited. Although the mainline drugs, propranolol and primidone, can provide good clinical benefit in a portion of cases, >50% of the patients stop the medication due to inefficacy or side-effects. Hypotension, dizziness, bradycardia, cognitive impairment, fatigue and erectile dysfunction are the most common side-effects contributing to medication discontinuation.~In an open-label pilot study, the investigators previously demonstrated that 2.1 mg/day pramipexole extended-release improved both the severity of tremor (by 52%) and health-related quality of life.~The present study aims to confirm this hypothesis in a double-blind, crossover, placebo-controlled multicenter study.
Aim of the study is to perform a double-blind, crossover, placebo-controlled multicenter study evaluating the efficacy of pramipexole on essential tremor.