[1] Several causes have been discovered to date, including damage or degradation of the cerebellum due to neurodegenerative diseases, trauma, tumor, stroke, or toxicity.

[1][3] Patients with intention tremors usually complain of difficulties with activities of daily living, including drinking from a cup, grabbing utensils to eat, and problems with coordination eye to an object or ambulation.

Associated cerebellar signs can include nystagmus, dysmetria, dysdiadochokinesia, hypotonia, proprioception deficits, and gait ataxia.

[citation needed] Intention tremors can be a first sign of MS, since loss or deterioration of motor function and sensitivity are often one of the first symptoms of cerebellar lesions.

[1][4] Intention tremors have a variety of other recorded causes, as well, including a variety of neurological disorders, such as stroke, cerebral palsy, alcoholism, alcohol withdrawal, peripheral neuropathy, Wilson's disease, Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease, Guillain–Barré syndrome, and fragile X syndrome, as well as brain tumors, low blood sugar, hyperthyroidism, hypoparathyroidism, insulinoma, normal aging, and traumatic brain injury.

[3] Some ordinary activities, including ingesting too much caffeine, cigarettes, and alcohol, along with stress, anxiety, fear, anger, and fatigue have also been shown to cause intention tremor by negatively affecting the cerebellum, brainstem, or thalamus, as discussed in mechanisms.

[5] Intention tremors that are caused by normal, everyday activities, such as stress, anxiety, fear, anger, caffeine, and fatigue, do not seem to result from damage to any part of the brain.

When the cerebellum is damaged, a person may have difficulty executing a fine motor movement, such as attempting to touch one's nose with one's finger.

Focal lesions such as neoplasms, tumors, hemorrhages, demyelination, or other damage may be causing dysfunction of the cerebellum and correspondingly the intention tremor.

In a finger-to-nose test, a physician has the individual touch their nose with their finger while monitoring for irregularity in timing and control of the movement.

An individual with intention tremors has coarse side-to-side movements that increase in severity as the finger approaches the nose.

[citation needed] Important historical elements to the diagnosis of intention tremor are: Secondary symptoms commonly observed are dysarthria (a speech disorder characterized by poor articulation and slurred speech), nystagmus (rapid involuntary eye movement, especially rolling of the eyes), gait problems (abnormality in walking), and postural tremor or titubation (to-and-fro movements of the neck and trunk).

Isoniazid, buspirone hydrochloride, glutethimide, carbamazepine, clonazepam, topiramate, zofran, propranolol, and primidone have all seen moderate results in treating intention tremor and can be prescribed treatments.

The agonist buspirone hydrochloride, which decreases serotonin's function in the central nervous system, has been viewed as an effective treatment of intention tremors.

Wearing wrist weights to weigh down one's hands as they make movements, masking much of the tremor, is a proven home remedy.

Deep brain stimulation and surgical lesioning of the thalamic nuclei has been found to be an effective long-term treatment with intention tremors.

[citation needed] Deep brain stimulation treats intention tremors, but does not help related diseases or disorders such as dyssynergia and dysmetria.