ABSTRACT

Objective

Essential tremor (ET) is one of the most common movement disorders. Aside from tremor, patients may exhibit other motor features as well as non-motor features, including neuropsychiatric symptoms. The cerebellum and cerebellar connections are thought to play a key role in the pathophysiology of ET. Cognitive and affective disturbances can occur in the context of cerebellar disease. Our aim was to study the prevalence and clinical correlates of alexithymia and its relationship to depression and anxiety in ET patients and control subjects (CS).

Method

We enrolled 100 ET patients and 100 age- and gender-matched CS. The Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS-20), the Beck depression inventory-II and the Beck anxiety inventory were administered.

Results

Alexithymia levels were significantly higher in ET patients than CS (respective mean TAS-20 scores = 50.63 ± 9.79 vs. 44.05 ± 12.51, p < 0.001). There were robust associations between alexithymia, depressive symptoms, and anxiety but, after excluding the ET patients and the CS who had moderate or severe depression or who had moderate or severe anxiety, the total alexithymia score remained significantly higher in the ET than the CS group (46.78 ± 9.19 vs. 41.18 ± 11.79, p ≤ 0.01).

Conclusion

This study suggests that prevalence of alexithymia is significantly higher in ET patients. Alexithymia might be another non-motor neuropsychiatric symptom of the disease. Further studies are needed to confirm and expand upon our findings.

中文翻译：

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无论是否存在抑郁和焦虑，述情障碍都是特发性震颤的非运动症状。

摘要

目标

特发性震颤 (ET) 是最常见的运动障碍之一。除了震颤外，患者还可能表现出其他运动特征以及非运动特征，包括神经精神症状。小脑和小脑连接被认为在 ET 的病理生理学中起关键作用。认知和情感障碍可能发生在小脑疾病的背景下。我们的目的是研究 ET 患者和对照受试者 (CS) 述情障碍的患病率和临床相关性及其与抑郁和焦虑的关系。

方法

我们招募了 100 名 ET 患者和 100 名年龄和性别匹配的 CS。管理多伦多述情障碍量表-20 (TAS-20)、贝克抑郁量表-II 和贝克焦虑量表。

结果

ET 患者的述情障碍水平显着高于 CS（各自的平均 TAS-20 评分 = 50.63 ± 9.79 与 44.05 ± 12.51，p < 0.001）。述情障碍、抑郁症状和焦虑之间存在很强的关联，但在排除 ET 患者和患有中度或重度抑郁症或中度或重度焦虑症的 CS 后，ET 的述情障碍总分仍显着高于 CS 组（46.78 ± 9.19 与 41.18 ± 11.79，p ≤ 0.01）。

结论

这项研究表明，在 ET 患者中述情障碍的患病率显着更高。述情障碍可能是该疾病的另一种非运动神经精神症状。需要进一步的研究来证实和扩展我们的发现。