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Completed

NCT Number: NCT05216250

Study of BOTOX Injections to Assess Change in Disease Symptoms in Adult Participants With Upper Limb Essential Tremor

Upper limb essential tremor (UL ET) is a movement disorder characterized by postural and/or kinetic tremor. It can cause difficulty with everyday tasks such as writing, pouring, and eating, and patients also experience associated social embarrassment. This study will assess how safe and effective BOTOX is in treating UL ET. Adverse events and change in disease activity will be evaluated.

BOTOX is an investigational drug being developed for the treatment of UL ET. Participants are randomly assigned to 1 of the 4 groups, called treatment arms. Each group receives different treatment. There is 1 in 2 chance that participants will be assigned to placebo. Around 174 participants, aged 18 to 80 years with UL ET will be enrolled in approximately 40 sites in North America.

Participants will receive BOTOX or placebo injections in Cycle 1 and Cycle 2. In Cycle 3, participants will receive unilateral or bilateral BOTOX injections. Each cycle is 12 weeks.

There may be higher treatment burden for participants in this trial compared to their standard of care. Participants will attend regular visits during the study at a hospital or clinic. The effect of the treatment will be checked by medical assessments, blood tests, checking for side effects and completing questionnaires.

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Key information

Conditions

Upper Limb Essential Tremor (UL ET)

Age range

18 year–80 year

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Phase 2

Primary location

Vancouver Coastal Health Authority - University of British Columbia /ID# 240356, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

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Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: No

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

  • Diagnosis of essential tremor in accordance with modified Tremor Investigation Group (TRIG) criteria as described in the protocol.
  • TREDS-Revised Scale (1-4 scale, whole numbers) unilateral score of >= 3 for the Tremor Disability Scale (TREDS) on any of the 7 unilateral items; no more than a single item score of 1 among the 7 unilateral items in the dominant limb.
  • TETRAS activities of daily living (ADL) (recorded on a 0-4 scale, whole numbers) minimum score of >= 3 on any of the 5 unilateral items; no more than a single item score of <=1 among the 5 unilateral items in the dominant limb.
  • At least one of the following criteria must also be met:
  • TETRAS UL score (0-4 scale, with 0.5 increments) of > 2 in the dominant limb on at least one of the 3 maneuvers OR
  • TETRAS Archimedes spiral task score (0-4 scale, with 0.5 increments) of > 2 in the dominant limb

Exclusion criteria

  • Any uncontrolled clinically significant medical condition other than the one under study.
  • Any medical condition that may put the participant at increased risk with exposure to BOTOX Purified Neurotoxin Complex.

Treatment and study plan

BOTOX

Biological

Intramuscular injection

Other names: Botulinum Toxin Type A

Placebo for BOTOX

Drug

Intramuscular injection

Primary outcomes

  1. Change From Baseline in Tremor Disability Scale-Revised (TREDS-R) Total Score Across 7 Unilateral Items

    Time frame: Week 24

    Tremor Disability Scale-Revised (TREDS-R) is a scale to assess activities of daily living (ADL) through a self-questionnaire asking participants to rate how easy or difficult it is to perform a particular activity. The scale consists of 20 items with each item rated on a scale of 1 (able to do the activity without difficulty) to 4 (cannot do the activity by yourself). 7 items included in this subset will be: use a spoon to drink soup, hold a cup of tea, pour milk from a bottle or carton, dial a telephone, pick up your change in a shop, insert an electric plug into a socket, unlock your front door with a key.

  2. Number of Participants with Treatment Emergent Adverse Events (AEs)

    Time frame: Up to approximately 36 weeks

    An AE is defined as any untoward medical occurrence in a patient or clinical investigation in which a participant is administered a pharmaceutical product which does not necessarily have a causal relationship with this treatment.

Secondary outcomes

  1. Change From Baseline in TETRAS Activity of Daily Living (TETRAS ADL) Total Score Across 5 Unilateral Items

    Time frame: Week 24

    TETRAS Activity of Daily Living (TETRAS ADL) is a clinical rating scale using the total score across 5 unilateral items of the analyzed 10-item TETRAS ADL, with each item's recorded scores of 0 and 1 (0-4 scale) combined into one category with a score of 1 for analysis on a 1-4 scale.

    The 5 tasks included in this subset will be feeding with a spoon, drinking from a glass, pouring, using keys, and writing.

  2. Change From Baseline in TETRAS Archimedes Spiral Score

    Time frame: Week 24

    Tremor Research Group Essential Tremor Rating Assessment Scale (TETRAS) Archimedes Spiral is an item of the TETRAS performance subscale that is designed to assess tremor severity. During this test, participants are instructed to draw an unbroken spiral which is then scored from 0 to 4, with 1 being tremor is "barely visible" and 4 being "figure not recognizable."

  3. Change From Baseline in TETRAS Handwriting Score

    Time frame: Week 24

    TETRAS Handwriting is an item of the TETRAS performance subscale that is designed to assess tremor severity. During this test, participants are instructed to write the standard sentence "This is a sample of my best handwriting" using the dominant hand only, which is then scored from 0 to 4 with 1 being tremor is "slight: untidy due to tremor that is barely visible" and 4 being "severe: completely illegible."

  4. Change From Baseline in Clinical Global Impression of Severity (CGI-S)

    Time frame: Week 24

    CGI-S is a single item used to measure the clinician's impression of the current severity of the patient's essential tremor. The measure uses a 5-point rating scale where "0 = none, 1 = mild, 2 = moderate, 3 = severe, and 4 = very severe."

  5. Change From Baseline in Patient Global Impression of Severity (PGI-S)

    Time frame: Week 24

    PGI-S is a single item used to measure the participant's impression of severity of their essential tremor symptoms. The measure uses a 5-point rating scale where 0 = none, 1 = mild, 2 = moderate, 3 = severe, and 4 = very severe.

  6. Change From Baseline in Essential Tremor Rating Assessment (TETRAS UL) Score

    Time frame: Week 24

    TETRAS Upper Limb (UL) Scale is an item of the TETRAS performance subscale that is designed to assess upper limb tremor during three maneuvers: forward horizontal reach posture, lateral "wing beating" posture, and finger-nose-finger testing. Each maneuver is scored from 0 to 4, with 1 indicating a tremor amplitude that is "barely visible" and 4 indicating a tremor amplitude that is >= 20 cm.

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

AbbVie

Industry

Registry information

Official study title

A Phase 2 Multicenter, Randomized, Double-blind, Placebo-controlled Study of BOTOX® (Botulinum Toxin Type A) Purified Neurotoxin Complex for the Treatment of Upper Limb Essential Tremor

Important dates

Study start
2022
Primary completion
2025
Study completion
2025
First posted
Jan 31, 2022
Registry last updated
Jan 20, 2026

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.