Emotional eccrine sweating. A heritable disorder.

A family with hereditary emotional hyperhidrosis is described. The inheritance pattern is autosomal dominant. A simple quantitative palmar sweat test was used to objectively confirm historical data. Of two family members tested, both had a marked decrease in palmar sweat secretion during administration of diltiazem, a calcium-channel blocker. Additional studies in a large group of patients are needed to extend this observation.