Psychiatric and medical factors associated with disability in patients with dizziness

Dizziness is a common patient symptom and often remains medically unexplained even after an extensive work-up. The otologic disorders, psychiatric disorders, and functional disability of 75 patients presenting with dizziness to a community otolaryngology practice were assessed in 1991. The patients were classified according to the presence or absence of at least one current DSM-III-R psychiatric disorder and the presence or absence of a peripheral vestibular disorder. Decrements in mental health and role functioning, and increases in bodily pain and hypochondriacal focus were significantly associated with the presence of a psychiatric disorder and whether the etiology of dizziness was due to a peripheral vestibular dysfunction.