Personal Factors Involved in Onset or Progression of Ménière’s Disease and Low-Tone Sensorineural Hearing Loss

Abstract

Purpose: To identify personal causative factors for Ménière’s disease. Procedures: Patterns of hearing loss progression were studied in patients with Ménière’s disease and low-tone sensorineural hearing loss, and the involvement of stress and the relation of stressors to the onset or progression of the disease were analyzed. Results: Low-tone loss recurred in 40% of patients even after hearing was restored, and low-tone loss progressed to high-tone loss after frequent repetitions of recovery and recurrence. High-tone loss tended to proceed to all-tone loss. Eighty percent of patients reported that stress was involved or deeply involved in the onset or progression of the disease. Common causative stressors were business-related pressure, insufficient sleep, and troubles at the workplace or at home. Conclusions: The present findings indicate that recovery and recurrence may be influenced by the strength and duration of stress that is produced when patients do not feel rewarded for engrossment in their work or for self-inhibiting behaviors.

Long-term prognosis of hearing loss in patients with unilateral Ménière’s disease

“…Therefore, the good prognosis of hearing associated with the early intervention may not be due to the treatment with osmotic diuretic. On the other hand, in the present study, patients with Ménière's disease also received the instruction to operate changes in their lifestyle, especially to avoid mental and physical stress, because Ménière's disease is recognized as a stress-induced disease [7]. Indeed, it has been reported that counseling is more effective in improving the hearing level in patients with Ménière's disease than drug treatment [19], suggesting that it decreases levels of stress hormones such as vasopressin, which increases the extent of endolymphatic hydrops [20].…”

“…It is suggested that the deteriorated hearing loss at the initial visit at middle to high frequencies is a factor of poor prognosis of the hearing loss in patients with Ménière's disease, because the hearing loss at low frequencies is fluctuating and reversible at the early stage of the disease [5] and that at high frequencies tends to be irreversible and progressive [6,7].…”

“…On the other hand, it was also reported that sensorineural hearing loss in Ménière's disease deteriorated progressively until it reached a moderate or severe level [5][6][7]. Since the vertigo attacks decrease or disappear in the long-term course, the goal of treatment for Ménière's disease should be to prevent the progression of hearing loss that causes a reduction in the quality of life in the patients [4,8,9].…”

Effects of Stress or Personality Types on Ocular Dryness, Dizziness, and Autonomic Nervous Dysfunction of Healthy Subjects in the Workplace

“…The questionnaire used to evaluate three categories related to stress is shown in Table 2. The category dealing with personality types contained 14 items related to the type A personality (questions 1-14), five items related to the self-resistant type personality (questions [15][16][17][18][19], and five items related to the escape type personality (questions [20][21][22][23][24]. One of three responses could be chosen for each item and the score was based on the answer chosen: no (0), sometimes (1), or yes (2).…”

“…We evaluated the three personality types, means of relaxation, and causes of anxiety [18][19][20] using our questionnaire to verify the relationship between the personalities and chronic stress.…”