I am a 70 yr male w/ a BET Tremour. Ive tried propanolol& primodone 
w/ no luck ( These 2 drugs side effects of depression etc is not
helpful).
 What other treatments & therapies are available  incl any non-prescription drugs??

Greetings!
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There are a number of other prescription medications available other
then the ones you tried which are often prescribed to treat BET.  The
primary family of drugs which is used to treat it are called
beta-blockers.  Propanolol falls into this category.  Often times
these drugs are said to have a calming and relaxing effect.

Other beta-blockers which are used to treat BET are:
*atenolol
*sotalol

Another line of treatment used are anti-seizure medications which is
the drug class that primidone falls into.  I ran across this in the
course of my research which I thought was interesting:

"often patients will find the first dose of primidone difficult to
tolerate - a suggested regime would be a quarter of a 250mg tablet at
night, building up very slowly to 250 mg tds over a period of six
weeks or so (2); despite the very slow titration patients may complain
of sedation as a side effect"

Some of the alternatives to primidone I was able to find are:
*topiramate
*busiprone 5mg tds
*clonazepam 0.5 - 3mg daily in divided doses.  

Other drugs which are used to treat BET include:
*benzodiazepines (Xanax)
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/uspdi/202084.html


*botulinum A toxin - haemagglutinin complex (BOTOX)

"Two RCTs in people with essential hand tremor found that botulinum A
toxin?haemagglutinin complex improved clinical rating scales at 4?12
weeks. They found no consistent improvement in motor tasks or
functional disability. Hand weakness, which is dose dependent and
transient, is a frequent adverse effect. We found no RCTs addressing
long term outcomes."

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:E0UL3Lv62PMJ:www.clinicalevidence.com/ceweb/conditions/nud/1206/1206_I11.jsp+botulinum+A+toxin+benign+essential+tremor&hl=en&client=safari

*flunarizine 
http://www.drugs.com/cons/Flunarizine.html

*Phenobarbital
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/medmaster/a682007.html

One of the other non-prescription treatments I found was mild amounts of alcohol.  

"Alcoholic beverages in small quantities may markedly decrease tremors
but can lead to alcohol dependence if used in excess. The mechanism by
which alcohol decreases an essential tremor is unknown."

http://www.drugs.com/enc/essential_tremor.html


As a general rule stimulants such as coffee and nicotine should be
avoided.  Also you should try to reduce the stress in your life as a
means to help fight it.  The last alternative treatment I was able to
find is called bio-feedback.    More information about biofeedback in
general can be found here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biofeedback

Good luck and if you have any questions or need something cleared up
please request a clarification before rating my answer and I will be
happy to help.

Best,
djbaker-ga

Search Strategy:
Benign Essential Tremor
beta-blockers Benign Essential Tremor
prescription alternatives Benign Essential Tremor

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Request for Answer Clarification by donbabe-ga on 11 Jun 2005 15:08 PDT

To :djbaker
 Thx for your response. 
I am  19 yrs in sobriety so I choose to be alcohol free...but is there
any alternative ? Also told clonapin & Xanax are addictive  But can
you suggest a dosing schedule for clonipin?
I will retry primidone &  titrate @25mg@nite up to 75mg. Can it be
taken all at once in this way? Dont mind being sedated at nite.
Topomax exacerbated the Tremor. I just started Lamictal  titrating
@25mg ea AM w/ goal of 100mg/day for my  Bipolar 2 condition..........
but I feel it also is exacerbating the tremor even at this low dose.
So I will need a combo of thngs to manage this problem.
I will look into biofeedback.  The botox looks like a loser for this
condition....is that your conclusion too?
Know of any supplements/herbs  exotic  ideas? Anything physical I can do?

---

Clarification of Answer by djbaker-ga on 12 Jun 2005 12:46 PDT

Just wanted to let you know since you had not heard from me yet that I
am in the process of looking into this.

---

Clarification of Answer by djbaker-ga on 14 Jun 2005 08:05 PDT

Greetings again!
Sorry it took so long for the response, I really wanted to try and
track something down for you on the alternatives but kept coming up
snake eyes.  Unfortunately I was unable to really find anything that
looked close to reliable on a lot of the things you asked about.

On the physical end the only thing I was able to find is that in some
cases Doctor's recommended special exercises to help strengthen
certain parts of the body.

"Perform special exercises. Your doctor may recommend working with a
specialist to learn exercises to promote more stability in your hands
and wrists. These usually involve using 1- to 2-pound weights strapped
to your wrists. You can continue doing these exercises at home."

http://www.dreddyclinic.com/findinformation/ee/essentialtremor.htm

In terms of dosage and medication schedules, that is something that
you will have to discuss with your doctor.  Since I am not a doctor I
don't feel comfortable giving any recommendations on the matter.

As far as herbs and other alternative remedies, I could not find
anything on that either.  The key I am finding is just a reduction in
your level of stress.  Stay away from the stimulants such as caffeine
and nicotine and try to spend more time relaxing/meditating.  From
what I can tell, this seems to be the best of the alternatives to
medicine.

I hope this help.  Good luck with everything and thank you very much
for using Google Answers.

Best,
djbaker-ga

Thanks for the effort

You could try Nootropil (piracetam), it's a "smart-drug" used in
Europe to treat a similar condition called cortical myoclonus.