MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Roopa Rajan MD, DM Post Doctoral Fellowship (Movement Disorders) Assistant Professor Department of Neurology AIl India Institute of Medical Sciences New Delhi  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: This study was inspired by the need for more effective treatments for patients with disabling hand tremor, particularly dystonic tremor. Dystonic tremor is a movement disorder in which both dystonia (abnormal posturing) and tremor co-exist in the same body part. In general, this common and often disabling disease responds only modestly to oral medications. Surgical treatments such as deep brain stimulation may be offered to persons with severe tremor, however the outcomes are not as robust as seen in other tremor conditions,  for instance, essential tremor. Therefore, there is a critical need for more effective treatments for people living with this disease. Botulinum toxin injections are known to be effective for dystonic tremor affecting the head and voice, although these remain off-label indications. Previous studies using botulinum toxin injections for other hand tremors like essential tremor led to limited clinical application, in part due to transient hand weakness that may be a side effect of botulinum toxin injections. Recently, advances in injection delivery such as electromyographically guided botulinum toxin injections with individualized muscle and dose selections were reported to be beneficial in essential tremor. We built upon this existing data to explore the effects of such a treatment in patients with dystonic hand tremor.   (more…)