Clinical Trials
Numerous clinicians in North America, Europe and around the world are interested in finding new therapies for essential tremor. Each year trials are reported that were started after anecdotal favorable reports or "educated guesses." Although much progress has been made through this empirical approach in identifying therapies, much more progress is needed. Eventually, we may anticipate essential tremor-specific therapies based on knowledge of the abnormal cell and the abnormal genes.

Relatively few centers are conducting clinical trials of therapies for essential tremor on a regular basis. One such site is that of Adrian Handforth, M.D. and Fredricka Martin, Ph.D. at the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System. These investigators are utilizing a mouse model to screen for potential effectiveness. If the medication passes the mouse test, it is then assessed in a small open-treatment pilot clinical trial. The final stage will be a controlled clinical trial. These trials require a series of outpatient visits. Interested participants should be within driving distance. Subjects do not have to be a veteran, but should be at least age eighteen. Email: charles.handforth@med.va.gov.

The Limiting Factor
Contrary to popular belief, the lack of ideas is not the most common factor holding up scientific progress. Instead it is the lack of funds that hamper progress. After a vigorous growth period of NIH research budgets, research funding has stabilized, so that new applicants will have a hard time obtaining funding. More than ever, essential tremor needs funding support from private donors.

Dr. Handforth's call for funding is synonymous with TAN's objective to stimulate an increase in both federal and private sector funding.

"Life is not merely to be alive, but to be well."
Marcus Valerius Martialis

Boston Life Sciences
Poet Clinical Trial

Carisbamate Research Study

E-Mail:  ksmith@thepi.org

NINDS Clinical Trials
Pharmacokinetics of 1-Octanol in Adults with Essential Tremor
05-N- 0092 characterizes the pharmacokinetics of 1-octanol in humans. Gas Chromatography (GC) will be used for the quantification of octanol from plasma and urine samples. Contact Patient Recruitment for more details.

Phenotype/Genotype Correlations in Movement Disorders
01-N-0206 identifies families with inherited movement disorders and evaluates disease manifestations to establish an accurate clinical diagnosis by using newest technological advances and investigate the underlying molecular mechanisms. For further information, contact Patient Recruitment.

Botulinum Toxin for the Treatment of Involuntary Movement Disorders
85-N-0195 examines the effectiveness of botulinum toxin as treatment for a variety of movement disorders. Patients will be eligible for participation if they have a movement disorder that, in the judgment of the treating physician, might be amenable to treatment with botulinum toxin. Contact Patient Recruitment for more information.

Focal Dystonia Clinical Trials
Sixteen (16) focal dystonia studies are currently recruiting patients.

Roadmap
NIH Roadmap is regularly updated to reflect developments in three main areas: new pathways to discovery, research teams of the future, and re-engineering the clinical research enterprise.