Psychological distress and disability in patients with vertigo

Vertigo is an extremely debilitating experience for the patient, especially during attacks; it is neither easy to identify nor control. The importance of psychosomatic factors has already been widely studied and discussed. In particular, it has been shown that stress factors are relevant in setting off episodes of dizziness, but there is no agreement if the presence of distress might influence the vestibular disability.

This study is concerned with evaluating the quality of life (QOL) in a group of 206 patients suffering from vertigo and 86 control patients, using the UCLA-Dizziness Questionnaire (UCLA-DQ) scale. The results were correlated with those achieved using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) psychometric test.

What is clear is that, in patients suffering from vertigo as regards those who are not, there is a significant amount of anxiety and depression distress, especially in female subjects. There appears to be no relationship between psychological change and the various forms of clinical vertigo. In terms of the QOL parameter, what emerges is that, from a statistical point of view, fear of becoming dizzy is most closely correlated with the perception of disability.

There is a also a need for psycho-education here in collaboration with the E.N.T. specialist so that the patient can learn to recognise his/her medical condition and be aware of the factors that primarily contribute to the deterioration of their QOL.