Tremor: Clinical Measurement of Impairment, Disability and Handicap

Clinical methods for quantifying tremor severity are cheap, quick and easy to perform, which allows them to be more widely deployed than the physiological techniques described in the following chapter. Furthermore, these simple methods provide readily comprehensible indices of tremor severity, which is perhaps their most significant advantage over physiological techniques. Clinical instruments presently exist for documenting tremor impairment as well as its impact on the patient in terms of disability, handicap, quality of life and suffering (Table 28.1).