Are the Persistent Postural-Perceptual Dizziness (PPPD) Patients More Anxious than the Patients with Other Dizziness?

The Behavioral Subcommittee of the Bárány Society Committee for Classification of Vestibular Disorders recently established the diagnostic criteria for a persistent postural-perceptive dizziness (PPPD).

This study aims to determine how significant the degree of anxiety and depression of PPPD patients is, compared to the patients with other dizziness.

The study was conducted on 78 patients, 39 (50%) of whom suffer from PPPD, and of a control group consisting of the same number of patients with other types of dizziness. All the patients filled out the DHI and HADS questionnaire and were subjected to a VNG and VEMP examination.

The DHI showed significant disability in the majority of patients, slightly more in the control group. The HADS showed an equal degree of anxiety in both groups of patients, but significantly higher pathological anxiety in the PPPD group (49%:31%).

Majority of the patients in both groups experienced mild anxiety, while those with the pathological degree were more represented in the PPPD group. Depression was more expressed in the group of other dizziness. We can consider only the patients with a pathological degree of anxiety as predisposed to the emergence of PPPD.