Somatic and psychological factors contributing to handicap in people with vertigo

Abstract

Questionnaires assessing symptoms, disability and handicap, predisposition to anxiety, and current anxiety and depression were completed by 127 people attending neuro-otology clinics with a major complaint of vertigo or dysequilibrium. Definite signs of vestibular dysfunction (spontaneous or positional nystagmus, or canal paresis) were found in 56% of the sample, but the presence or absence of abnormal vestibular test results was unrelated to diagnosis, reported symptoms, handicap and psychological status. Two-thirds of employed respondents admitted to occupational difficulties, and more than one in seven had left work because of vertigo. Although the number of people in the sample with a predisposition to anxiety was not unusually high, over a third of the sample had abnormally elevated levels of current anxiety. Multiple regression analyses indicated that disability was determined mainly by physical factors (vertigo severity and duration, age and sex). Handicap was influenced by a mixture of somatic and psychological variables, including the severity of autonomic symptoms. Anxiety and depression were only indirectly related to the severity and duration of the vertigo, insofar as this contributed to handicap. The partial dissociation between these different aspects of patient well-being suggests a need for separate evaluation and differing management of problems at each level of functioning.