Tremors: Treatment
The treatment of tremor depends largely on its severity and underlying cause.

Some successful pharmacological treatments include:

• Beta-blockers like atenolol (Tenormin) and propranolol (Inderal).
• Antiseizure drugs like primidone (Myidone, Mysoline),  lorazepam (Ativan) or alprazolam (Xanax).
• Antiparkinson drugs like Levodopa.

Many people find that drinking small amounts of alcohol temporarily relieves tremor. This is a useful fact for making the diagnosis, but alcohol is not a desirable treatment—you should avoid heavy drinking. You should also avoid caffeine (in substances such as coffee and soda) and other stimulants because they tend to exacerbate tremor symptoms.

Botulinum toxin (Botox®) injections have proven to be effective in treating head, hand, and voice tremors. Equally promising, deep brain stimulation is a relatively new technique for controlling severe tremor. The patient activates a surgically implanted generator using a hand-held magnet. The magnet delivers an electronic pulse to the brain that blocks the signals which trigger tremor.

Other surgical procedures for patients with severe tremor include:

• Thalamotomy: the surgeon destroys part of the thalamus, the part of the brain that coordinates nerve impulses relating to the senses of sight, hearing, touch, and taste.
• Pallidotomy: the surgeon destroys part of a small structure within the brain called the globus pallidus internus, that part of the brain that helps control movement.
• Stem cell transplant: the surgeon implants fetal tissue in a patient's brain to replace damaged nerves.

Because both thalamotomy and pallidotomy destroy portions of the brain that affect senses and movement, these procedures may have a permanent negative impact on balance and coordination. Stem cell transplant remains a highly controversial treatment.