Psychological distress longitudinally mediates the effect of vertigo symptoms on vertigo-related handicap.

OBJECTIVE

Vertigo symptoms can lead to more or less vertigo-related handicap. This longitudinal study investigated whether depression, anxiety, and/or somatization mediate the relationship between vertigo symptoms and vertigo-related handicap.

METHODS

N=111 patients with vertigo/dizziness provided complete data on the following measures: Vertigo symptoms at baseline, depression at 6-month follow-up, anxiety at 6-month follow-up, somatization at 6-month follow-up, and vertigo handicap at 12-month follow-up. Mediation analyses with bootstrapping were performed to investigate the mediating role of anxiety, depression, and somatization in the relationship between vertigo symptoms and vertigo-related handicap.

RESULTS

When the mediating role of anxiety, depression, and somatization was evaluated separately from each other in single mediation models, the effect vertigo symptoms at baseline exerted on vertigo-related handicap at 12-month follow-up was significantly mediated by depression at 6-month follow-up (p<0.05), by anxiety at 6-month follow-up (p<0.05), as well as by somatization at 6-month follow-up (p<0.05). When statistically controlling for the other mediators in a multiple mediator model, only depression at 6-month follow-up mediated the effect of vertigo symptoms at baseline on vertigo-related handicap at 12-month follow-up (p<0.05).

CONCLUSION

Psychological distress is an important mechanism in the process how vertigo symptoms lead to vertigo-related handicap.