Patient-reported treatment satisfaction in essential tremor: levels of satisfaction and predictors of satisfaction.

Background: Although managing symptoms is paramount for both essential tremor (ET) patients and their healthcare providers, studies of treatment satisfaction are surprisingly lacking.

Objectives: We evaluated the satisfaction of patients who used a range of treatments and assessed the relation of a wide array of factors to satisfaction.

Methods: One hundred four ET participants (age = 74.5 ± 10.2 years) completed a battery of self-report items. These included demographic information, measures of tremor and clinical history, psychological state, current ET treatment, and a series of questions about satisfaction with treatment.

Results: Analyses of responses to the four current treatment satisfaction questions revealed that the proportion of participants who were satisfied ranged from 35.0% to 57.3% (i.e., approximately 1/3 to 1/2); conversely, the proportion who were dissatisfied ranged from 9.2% to 37.0%. The remainder were neutral. Higher satisfaction levels were observed in participants who were included in treatment selection and who had undergone deep brain stimulation surgery, p's < 0.05. Lower levels of satisfaction were found in participants with a negative psychological state, higher self-rated tremor severity, head/voice/jaw tremors, and more severe physical side effects; and who used botulinum toxin therapy, p's < 0.05.

Conclusion: Between 1/3 and 1/2 of patients were satisfied with their treatment, whereas up to 1/3 were dissatisfied. In this initial exploration of correlates of treatment satisfaction in ET patients, we identified a number of associations between satisfaction and clinical, psychological and treatment variables. Additional research is warranted to further explore the nature of these relations over time.