Hand shake reduction for Essential tremor disease

The results from the research shows that VILIM ball device could be effective on reducing hand tremor:

Investigation results

Open access scientific publication:

Abramavičius, Silvijus; Venslauskas, Mantas; Vaitkus, Antanas; Gudžiūnas, Vaidotas; Laucius, Ovidijus; Stankevičius, Edgaras. Local vibrational therapy for essential tremor reduction: a clinical study // Medicina. Basel : MDPI AG. ISSN 1010-660X. eISSN 1648-9144. 2020, vol. 56, iss. 10, art. no. 552, p. 1-9. DOI: 10.3390/medicina56100552.

Efficacy study No. 1 was a prospective, single-center, randomized, controlled study designed to evaluate effectiveness. 17 subjects with diagnosed Essential tremor were randomly selected and enrolled in the study. Vibrational therapy was performed for each patient on dominant hand. Collected data was filtered to evaluate the range of 4-12 Hz which is hand tremor frequency with diagnosed essential tremor. 13 of 17 patients had lower tremor in dominant hand after the therapy (α= 0.0352). Based on the collected data it was calculated, that tremor was 56 % lower after the therapy. 15 additional patients were enrolled in the study to the sham group. The investigated sham device seemed to elicit no quantifiable effect in comparison with VILIM ball.

Efficacy study No. 2 was a cross-sectional study performed in patients with Essential and Parkinsonian tremor that use the VILIM ball , to assess the safety and efficacy, of the VILIM ball.  50 patients with the mean (standard deviation) age 66.9 were included (30 in the essential tremor and 20 Parkinsonian tremor) in the study. The primary efficacy outcome was the Patient-Reported Outcome based on a non-validated patient telephone questionnaire. The secondary outcome was the occurrence of adverse events. 46 patients reported improvement in tremor symptoms and function. 4 patients (2 PD and 2 ET) reported lack of effect in terms of symptoms and function. The patients used the VILIM ball for 7.63 months. 38 patients were able to report the duration of improved function which was 90.79 minutes. 4 more patients refused to participate in the study because of no improvement in tremor during the two-week initial testing phase. No adverse events were reported by the patients in this study.

Current results gives a proof that the methodology is effective and could help people with hand tremor easily perform daily activities like writing, eating or other. The further researches will be dedicated for the optimization of the device effectiveness.

According to previous studies, the vibrational therapy could reduce hand tremor and stiffness for Parkinson’s disease by 25% and 24%, respectively. (Haas, 2006).

King et al. (2009)   have found that vibrational therapy could significantly decrease rigidity, and tremor. Results of their initial investigation provide support for vibration therapy as a non-pharmacological treatment alternative.

The next research describes the combination of the whole body vibration therapy and exercises. It was observed that this kind of therapy gives short term benefit for human motor system, posture and daily activities (Edmonston , 2016).

Heiko (2009) and others have found that the whole body vibration therapy significantly reduces hand tremor and stiffness as well as step lenght and walking speed.