Psychogenic vertigo
It is already known that the vestibular system plays an important role to stabilize the image on the retina. There are also interactions between the psyche and the balance system. Vertigo is a special experience, often traumatic, causing psychological disturbance in a large number of patients. Psychological vertigo is not a physiological problem. However, dizziness itself can also trigger anxiety.
Patients with Meniere’s disease are all disabled by the fear of new dizziness episodes or vertigo crisis, and some reaching to confuse the two. In other words, anxiety and depression are the cause of dizziness and can also complicate vertigo crisis.
Another example of a patient who had a whiplash with a cervical trauma may also clarify the situation. This patient, in addition to cervical dizziness problem, may suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder or even a minor depression. The patient does not need to treat cervical pathology, but assistance in psychology is almost essential, so that the imbalance treatment becomes functional.
It is likely that people with psychological disorders such as anxiety, panic, hyperventilation, agoraphobia and depression are more aware of the normal oscillation of the body and interpret this as dizziness or lightheadedness. These psychological disorders can reduce the normal amount of carbon dioxide in the body. Thus, causing dizziness and lightheadedness.
The combination of some symptoms such as hearing loss, balance disorders, vertigo from physiological phenomena to potentially dangerous conditions such as stroke, through all kinds of troublesome ailments, or psychological, often requires multidisciplinary approach, bringing together ENT specialists, neurologists, psychologists and psychiatrists. In all cases, patients suffer, and for them, vertigo is a reality, whatever the origin.
At the Polyclinique Centre-Ville, a multidisciplinary team supports complex and simple cases of vertigo though it is physiological or psychological.
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Anatomy and Function of the labyrinth
Definition
Do you have vertigo? An imbalance?
Benin Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV)
Meniere’s disease
Neuronitis or vestibular neuritis
Labyrinthitis
Dehiscence of the superior canal
Cervical dizziness
Perilymphatic fistula
Migraine and vertigo / Vestibular Migraine
Basilar migraine and vertigo
Vertigo of central origin
Psychogenic vertigo
Vertebrobasilar insufficiency and imbalance