Risk factors of social anxiety in patients with essential tremor

Lijun Hou; Xiaoguang Lei

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1051290

Risk factors of social anxiety in patients with essential tremor

Front Psychiatry. 2023 Feb 6:14:1051290. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1051290. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Lijun Hou¹, Xiaoguang Lei²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neurology, Qujing Second People's Hospital, Qujing, China.
² Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University, Kunming, China.

Abstract

Objective: To study the risk factors of social anxiety (SA) in essential tremor (ET) patients.

Methods: Motor, cognition, and SA were evaluated using the Fahn-Tolosa-Marin Tremor Rating Scale (FTMTRS), Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), and Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS) for each subject. The potential risk factors of SA in ET were analyzed using univariate analysis.

Results: A total of 80 ET patients and 85 healthy controls completed the evaluation. The LSAS evaluation showed that the prevalence of SA in the ET group was 48.8%, higher than that in controls (12.9%, P < 0.001). Female (OR = 4.959, P = 0.014), younger age (OR = 4.172, P = 0.037), and head tremor (OR = 4.707, P = 0.025) were risk factors of SA among ET patients.

Conclusion: SA is prevalent in patients with ET. Risk factors, such as female sex, age, and head tremor, should be considered for the prevention and intervention of SA in ET patients.

Keywords: Fahn-Tolosa-Marin Tremor Rating Scale (FTMTRS); Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS); essential tremor (ET); non-motor symptoms (NMS); social anxiety (SA); social anxiety in essential tremor (ET-SA).

Grants and funding

This research was supported by a grant from the Yunnan Provincial Department of Science and Technology-Yunnan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine Application Fundamental Joint Special Fund Project (202001AZ070001-080), Yunnan Health Training Project of High Level Talents (H-2017032), the Major Science and Technology Special Project of Yunnan Province (202102AA100061), National Natural Science Foundation of China (82160233), and Yunnan Basic Research Funding (202201AY070001-071).