Each month our editorial team sifts through hundreds of papers and curates notable findings—for practitioners and informed readers who want to stay current with the evidence. Subscribe to the monthly Research Digest for expert analysis and concise summaries of key papers.
Researchers followed 100 outpatients (mean age 62) who kept having dizziness. They found that problems of the vestibular system (inner ear and balance) and psychiatric disorders were the most common causes. About half the patients had more than one factor making dizziness worse, and life‑threatening causes were rare.
This representative German survey of 1,287 people (ages 14–90) found that 15.8% reported dizziness. Of those with dizziness, 28.3% had symptoms of at least one anxiety disorder (generalized anxiety, social phobia, or panic). People with dizziness also reported more physical health problems, and when anxiety was present they used more…
This randomized, controlled trial tested a brief cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) program for 41 patients with chronic subjective dizziness. The program was three weekly sessions led by a clinical psychologist and used psychoeducation, behavioral experiments, exposure, and attention refocusing. After treatment, patients showed large, significant reductions in dizziness-related disability, physical…
This review looked at studies in animals and people about how stress and the balance system (the vestibular system) affect each other. In many animal experiments, vestibular damage or stimulation turns on the body's stress system (the HPA axis) and short-term stress hormones help brain circuits adjust after vestibular loss.…
Spontaneous reports of vertigo or dizziness, as side-effect of certain drugs, received at our Pharmacovigilance Center, represented the 5% of all reports in 2012. Considering the high incidence of such an ADR for several drugs' classes, it can be speculated that under-reporting also affect vertigo and dizziness. Despite the fact…
This cross-sectional study of 100 patients with dizziness (mean age 38.7 years) used two questionnaires (DHI and HADS) to measure dizziness-related handicap and signs of anxiety and depression. The study found that 49% had normal HADS scores, 29% had anxiety, 7% had depression, and 15% had both anxiety and depression.…
This cross-sectional study measured 130 adults (52 men, 78 women; ages 18–75) with dizziness from four causes: BPPV, Meniere’s disease, unilateral weakness, and central causes. Researchers used the Dizziness Handicap Inventory (DHI) to measure disability and the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) to measure anxiety. They found no significant differences in…
This meta-analysis looked at six randomized trials and found that adding cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to usual treatments for persistent postural-perceptual dizziness (PPPD) was linked with greater short-term improvement in dizziness, anxiety, and depression scores than usual treatment alone. The review pooled results from studies found between January 2002 and…
This paper describes a 23-year-old woman whose recurring dizziness was linked to panic attacks and agoraphobia and who got better after medicine and therapy. The authors review studies showing that many people who complain of dizziness have anxiety or panic disorders, that routine ear and balance tests can be normal,…
This perspective paper looks at cervicogenic dizziness (CGD), a debated condition where dizziness happens with neck pain or neck problems. It explains how altered neck sensory signals may clash with the inner ear and sight, causing balance problems. The paper says current tests are not specific, some treatments like manual…
This randomized controlled trial with 60 adults who had chronic dizziness or vertigo found that adding vestibular rehabilitation therapy (VRT) to standard medication (betahistine) led to better thinking-test results and larger drops in dizziness-related disability than medication alone. Tests that improved more with VRT included digit span and a task-switching…
This meta-analysis combined 85 studies with 764,403 adults to estimate how common anxiety and depression are in people with vestibular disorders. It found higher rates of anxiety (31.4% vs. 8.3%) and depression (28.3% vs. 4.7%) in people with vestibular problems than in controls. The pooled relative risks were higher for…
