Psychological assessment in patients with phobic postural vertigo.

UNLABELLED: Phobic postural vertigo (PPV) is a frequent diagnosis which can be challenging to treat.

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the presence of psychiatric disturbances in patients with PPV; to assess the psychological status of patients using adaptive diagnosis; to verify possible correlations between severity of psychiatric disturbance and adaptive efficacy.

METHOD: A total of nineteen subjects were assessed and two instruments applied: the Primary Care Evaluation of Mental Disorders Questionnaire (PRIME-MD) and the Adaptive Operationalized Diagnostic Scale (AODS), and results from both tests were compared.

RESULTS

Fourteen patients presented with mood disorder and thirteen with anxiety. All patients presented compromised adaptive efficacy. Correlation was found between overall outcome on the PRIME and the AODS (tau= -0.42, p=0.027), Separate analysis revealed correlation between results of the AODS and anxiety disorders (tau= -0.45, p=0.018) but not with mood disorders (tau= -0.36, p=0.054).

CONCLUSION

Adaptive compromise was observed in individuals with PPV which was shown to be associated to psychiatric disorders.