Psychosomatic study of 60 patients with vertigo

The authors examined 60 consecutive patients hospitalized in Modena University Otorhinolaryngological Clinic for vertigo by means of an interview and of three self-rating scales (Zung's SDS, SAS and the Middlesex Hospital Questionnaire). The control group was composed of an equal number of patients hospitalized in the same ward and period for different nonsurgical otiatric diseases; the two groups were matched for age, sex, residential area, sociocultural conditions, duration of hospitalization and disease. According to the clinical diagnosis carried out when discharged from hospital, the patients where divided into five groups (Ménière's disease, neuronitis, vertebrobasilar insufficiency, neurosensorial deafness, nucleoreticular syndrome of Ararslan). The data regarding depression (MHQ and SDS), anxiety (MHQ and SAS), neuroticism, somatization (MHQ) and the prevailing of hysterical personality traits in women (MHQ) resulted particularly relevant from a statistical viewpoint (p less than 0.01).