Suggest Treatment For Myasthenia Gravis And Essential Tremors

Posted on Tue, 3 Feb 2015

Question: My mother in law has myasthenia gravis and essential tremors. for several years she has taken cellcept one hour before her morning and evening meal. She also has essential tremors. They gave her a beta blocker for many years and now the have taken it away saying she never should have taken the beta blocker in the first place. What medication would you suggest that would treat both the myasthenia gravis and the essential tremors? She is currently in a nursing home because she could not move and she lives alone. She finally got my brother in law on her cell phone and he took her to the emergency room.

Answered by Dr. Sudhir Kumar (11 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
Different medications are needed to treat both.

Detailed Answer:
Hi,

Thank you for posting your query.

I have noted your mother-in-law's symptoms.

She needs different medications to treat myasthenia gravis (MG) and essential tremors (ET).

For MG, cellcept (mycophenolate) is fine, as it would reduce the amount of acetylcholine receptor antibody level in the blood, the root cause of MG. In addition to that, she also needs to take pyridostigmine tablets to reduce the symptoms of MG, such as drooping go eyelids, swallowing and speaking difficulty, etc.

For ET, she can take topiramate tablets.

I hope my answer helps. Please get back if you have any follow up queries or if you require any additional information.

Wishing you good health,

Dr Sudhir Kumar MD (Internal Medicine), DM (Neurology) XXXXXXX Consultant Neurologist
Apollo Hospitals, XXXXXXX XXXXXXX
Click on this link to ask me a DIRECT QUERY: http://bit.ly/Dr-Sudhir-kumar
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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar