治療のポイント 特に薬物療法を中心に

抄録

　Patients with depression often complain of somatic symptoms like dizziness. It is very difficult to treat patients suffering from severe dizziness and depression with only anti-vertiginous-drugs. Therefore, using psychotropic drugs is one method to treat this type of patient. However, we believe that psychotropic drugs should be prescribed according to advice from psychiatrists or doctors who are familiar with these drugs, because benzodiazepine drugs can cause drug-dependence, anti-depressants exacerbate the condition in patients with irritability and psychiatric patients are at some risk of suicide. Physicians (non-expert psychiatrists) need to be careful when treating patients with depression when they prescribe psychotropic drugs, because these patients may become drug-dependent, more irritable and be at some risk of suicide. To reduce the risk of these incidents, physicians are strongly encouraged to consider introducing these patients with psychiatric disorders to psychiatrists. Recently, serotonin selective re-uptake inhibitors (SSRI), another kind of anti-depressant, have been prescribed more frequently by physicians. Our 33-year-old female case with severe dizziness and depression could be completely treated using SSRI. Using SSRI carefully can improve the mental condition and the quality of life (QOL) of patients who are suffering from severe dizziness and depression.