Neural Mechanisms of Vestibular Vertigo/dizziness and a Role of Psychiatric Diseases in the Treatment of Chronic Dizziness

Abstract

Vertigo/dizziness is a result of disturbance of spatial orientation. To maintain the spatial orientation, inner ear sensors for linear (otolith organs) and angular acceleration (semicircular canals) play an important role in visual and trunk stabilization through vestibulo-ocular and vestibulo-spinal reflexes, respectively. Once they are disturbed, loss of spatial orientation induces the vertigo/dizziness.

Seventy % of chronic dizziness patients have comorbid anxious and depressive disorders. The psychiatric diseases are the cause or accelerating factors of dizziness, and therefore, chronic dizziness is a psychosomatic disease. For its treatment, both of psychiatric and somatic approaches are important.