Clinical features and animal models of essential tremor (ET) suggest gamma-aminobutyric acid A receptor (GABA(A) R) subunits and GABA transporters as putative candidate genes.A total of 503 ET cases and 818 controls were investigated for an association between polymorphisms in 15 GABA(A) R and four GABA transporter genes and ET.Nine nominally significant tagging SNPs (P values from 4.9×10(-2) to 5.2×10(-4) ) were found in the hypothesis generation stage. Five SNPs were followed up in a second verification stage but failed to reach significance. (P values from 0.30 to 0.77).In our samples, no evidence of association between GABA(A) R and GABA transporter genes with ET was detected. Further studies are necessary to clarify the role of these genes in ET.