No association between essential tremor and migraine: A case-control study

Essential tremor (ET) and migraine headache are considered comorbid diseases on the basis of uncontrolled studies. We investigated the frequency of migraine in patients with ET by enrolling 110 patients with ET and 110 age-and sex-matched healthy controls in a case-control study. We found no significant differences in the frequency of lifetime and current migraine between patients and controls, even in patients stratified for age. Tremor had similar clinical features in patients with ET with and without migraine except that females predominated in patients with ET and migraine. Migraine also had similar characteristics in both patients with ET and migraine and in controls with migraine. Our study excludes a comorbid association between ET and migraine. When ET and migraine coexist their clinical phenotype and evolution remain almost unchanged.