Functional and psychiatric vestibular disorders

Behavioral factors have long been recognized as affecting spatial orientation and balance function. Neuroanatomic and neurophysiologic studies conducted worldwide over the last 30 years have substantially advanced our knowledge about the inherently strong connectivity among threat/anxiety, vestibular, visual, and somatosensory systems in the brain. Clinical investigations have shed greater light on the nature of functional and psychiatric disorders that manifest or magnify vestibular morbidity. Concepts of these syndromes have changed over 150 years. Even their nomenclature has had different meanings in different eras. This chapter will review functional and psychiatric vestibular disorders. Terminology will follow the International Classification of Diseases, 11th edition, beta draft and the International Classification of Vestibular Disorders. Anxiety plays a central role in behavioral vestibular morbidity. Anxiety, traumatic stress, obsessive, and depressive disorders may be primary causes of episodic and chronic vestibular symptoms or secondary complications of other vestibular disorders. These psychiatric illnesses affect 30–50% of patients who consult neurologists or otologists for vestibular symptoms. Coexisting psychiatric disorders adversely affect treatment for patients with structural vestibular diseases, especially when unrecognized. Persistent postural-perceptual dizziness is the leading cause of long-term vestibular disability. Fortunately, pharmacologic, psychotherapeutic, and rehabilitative treatments of these illnesses have improved in recent years.