Essential tremor (ET) is among the most common movement disorders, yet pharmacologic options remain limited. Recent mechanistic insights implicate abnormal cerebello-thalamo-cortical oscillations arising from impaired GABAergic inhibition, T-type calcium channel–driven rhythmicity, and SK/AMPA receptor–mediated hyperexcitability. Translational studies have explored neuroactive steroids targeting extrasynaptic GABAA receptors, T-type calcium channel blockers, SK-channel enhancers, and AMPA antagonists, with variable clinical efficacy. These findings highlight the biological heterogeneity of ET and the challenge of aligning molecular targets with meaningful clinical outcomes. Future progress will require precision-based pharmacotherapy, integrating circuit-specific biomarkers, mechanistic patient stratification, and real-world measures of tremor impact to transform the landscape of ET treatment.

T.L. and R.A. contributed to visualization, and writing—original draft, review, and editing. I.S. contributed to writing—review and editing. S-H.K. contributed to conceptualization project administration, resources, supervision, visualization, and writing—original draft, review, and editing.

‡ These authors contributed equally to this article.

Received: 24 October 2025

Accepted: 14 January 2026

Article published online:
06 February 2026

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