High alcoholism rate in patients with essential tremor.

The authors reviewed the charts of 36 patients discharged from a VA medical center with a diagnosis of essential tremor over a 10-year period for evidence of alcohol dependency or abuse and for family history of alcoholism and other psychiatric disorders. A sex- and age-matched sample of patients admitted during the same period for herniorrhaphy was used as a control group. Patients with essential tremor had a significantly higher frequency of alcohol dependence and abuse than control subjects and also had a much higher rate of positive first-degree family history of alcoholism. The authors suggest that essential tremor is an important cause of secondary alcoholism.