Further Studies on the Relationship between Menière, Psychosomatic Constitution and Stress

Abstract

A thorough knowledge of the patient's earlier life is required for an assessment of the background of Menitre's disease. Psychosomatic factors should be given special attention during interviews. For a correct picture to be obtained, the help of a specially trained worker i.e. a psychiatrist or psychologist, should be enlisted. Factors and casual relationships can then be uncovered which remain problems to doctors not thus specialized. The two series dealt with in this study illustrate this clearly. Summarizing the observations made, Menitre patients subjected to careful psychic and somatic analysis are found to have a predisposing psychosomatic constitution which, under chronic or acute stress, leads to such somatic manifestations as, in their turn, seem to presuppose a certain somatic predisposition-in this particular case evidently in the ear. Chronic stress seems to impair prognosis, a fact not difficult to understand considering that the mode of reaction depends upon the constitution, which-obviously-is of fairly permanent nature. Acta Otolaryngol Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by McMaster University on 02/19/15 For personal use only. Acta Otolaryng 7Q Acta Otolaryngol Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by McMaster University on 02/19/15 For personal use only. Acta Otolaryngol Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by McMaster University on 02/19/15 For personal use only.

Time‐series Analysis of the Relationship between Dizziness and Stress

“…The association between dizziness and stress merits investigation not only because it has implications for patient management, but also because of its theoretical significance, given the debate in the literature regarding the importance of psychological, or more specifically psychosomatic, models of dizziness causation (Fowler & Zeckel, 1952;Hinchcliffe, 1967;Rallo, 1972;Siirala & Gelhar, 1970;Stephens, 1975). These models are almost exclusively based on cross sectional correlations (or anecdotal observations) and there is evidence to suggest that a somatopsychic model is more plausible, since many studies have described how vestibular disorder can lead to anxiety, panic, agoraphobia and depression (Clark, Hirsch, Smith, Furman & Jacob, 1994;Lilienfeld, Jacob & Furman, 1989;Pratt & McKenzie, 1958;Yardley, Masson, Verschuur, Haacke & Luxon, 1992).…”

The possible relationship between health anxiety and vertigo

“…This may be due to the relatively small sample size of the groups or lower educational attainment in female patients that eventually leads to lack of sufficient cooperation to the given questionnaires. According to other studies [25,26] , there was a higher psychological distress in women than in men. This may be associated with the prevalence of certain characteristics (psychological anxiety and depression distress) that is higher in women than in the general population.…”

Psychosomatic Study of 60 Patients with Vertigo

“…In 76.6% of the cases the onset coincided with psychic conflicts (p < 0.001) and psychic stresses were found also to inten sify the symptoms in a high percentage of patients (60%). Other authors, like Fowler and Zeckel [7] and Siirala and co-workers [25,26], had largely come to the same con clusions in uncontrolled studies.…”

“…As regards the 'choice of the organ', the authors largely agree on the fact that the patients who get Meniere's disease must be assumed to have inner ears anatomically and/or physiologically predisposed to the disease [2,26]. However, the psychodynamic interpretation of the vertigo symptoms is dif ferent; it places the emphasis on its relational [6,18] or symbolic [ 16] significance.…”