Essential Tremor

Your healthcare provider can diagnose essential tremor based on your symptoms and a neurological examination. There aren’t any tests that can confirm whether or not a person has essential tremor.

However, an important part of the diagnostic process is ruling out other conditions that could cause similar symptoms. Ruling out those other conditions may involve blood tests and imaging tests.

What tests may be done to diagnose essential tremor?

When your healthcare provider suspects essential tremor, they may need to rule out other conditions. The most common and likely tests that help rule out other conditions include:

• Blood tests (these can help rule out conditions that look like essential tremor, especially thyroid conditions, Wilson’s disease and toxic exposure to metals like lead or manganese).
• Computerized tomography (CT) scan.
• Genetic testing.
• Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
• Positron emission tomography (PET) scan.