Welcome
Orthostatic Tremor (OT) is a rare movement disorder characterized by a rapid tremor in the legs that occurs when standing. The tremor disappears partially or completely when an affected person is walking or sitting. Individuals with orthostatic tremor experience feelings of unsteadiness or imbalance. The tremor can cause affected individuals to immediately attempt to sit or walk because of a fear of falling. In many patients, the tremors become more severe over time. Orthostatic tremor is a constant problem that can affect the quality of life of affected individuals. The exact cause of orthostatic tremor is unknown.
Because the condition is so rare, patients are thinly distributed across the world. There is precious little medical research into or publicity about OT and most General Practitioners (and even some Neurologists) have never heard of the condition.
In response to these factors, an active and world-wide group of people diagnosed with the condition has formed around the Facebook Orthostatic Tremor Support Network group and this website sits alongside the FB group to provide information (with an Australasian flavour) for individuals diagnosed with OT, and their families, friends and carers.
Independent of our Australasian flavour, we welcome readers from around the world and would love to hear about anything that would improve the lives of OT patients and their family and friends, no matter where that information comes from.
Orthostatic Tremor or Primary Orthostatic Tremor?
Some patients are diagnosed with “Orthostatic Tremor” (or OT) and others are diagnosed with “Primary Orthostatic Tremor” (or POT). Since the “tremor when standing” symptom is common to both and the likely medications, side-effects and day-to-day issues are the same for both conditions, for the most part we’ve adopted the shorter “Orthostatic Tremor” (or OT) nomenclature to inclusively cover both conditions on this website.
Corrections and Additions
If you notice an error or have something new that you’d like to see added to the website, please send email to editor “at” otaus.org.
Disclaimer
Despite the discussion of medical issues on this website, we are not doctors and are not pretending to be doctors, so common sense and the normal caveats apply. Much of the information here is anecdotal and that’s common for very rare conditions.