Anxiety, Depression Scores Up in Meniere Disease, Vertigo

Anxiety score and anxiety severity higher for those with Meniere disease versus those with benign positional paroxysmal vertigo

MONDAY, Sept. 19, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Patients with Meniere disease (MD) and those with benign positional paroxysmal vertigo (BPPV) have higher average scores of anxiety and depression and higher severity of anxiety and depression than controls, according to a study published in the September-October issue of the American Journal of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Medicine and Surgery.

Mahtab Raji Lahiji, from the Guilan University of Medical Sciences in Rasht, Iran, and colleagues conducted a case-control study involving 177 individuals aged 18 to 65 years to examine the frequency of anxiety and depression in patients with MD compared with healthy controls and patients with BPPV.

The researchers found that compared with the control group, the MD and BPPV groups had higher average scores of anxiety and depression and higher severity of anxiety and depression. The average anxiety score and anxiety severity were higher in the MD versus BPPV group, while only severity was higher in the MD versus BPPV group in the case of depression. The impacts of MD and BPPV were significant on anxiety compared with the control group after controlling for underlying variables.

“The prevalence of psychological disorders, including anxiety and depression, is higher in patients with MD and BPPV than in healthy individuals, which requires the special attention of the doctors,” the authors write. “Additionally, according to our results, MD patients develop psychological disorders more often and with more severity than BPPV patients.”