In the paper by Yardley et al (this issue, pp 679-684) the authors determined the extent of neuro-otological and psychiatric abnormalities associated with dizziness among working age adults drawn from an epidemiological United Kingdom community sample.

Attempts to define a neurophysiological link between psychiatric disorders and somatic symptoms have concentrated on dizziness for centuries, even before the remarkable group of 19th century scientists (Jan Evangelista Purkyne, Ernst Mach, Josef Breuer, Hermann Helmholtz, and Alexander Crum-Brown) discovered the functions of the labyrinth. The vestibular-psychiatric interrelation is characterised by the following aspects¹:

Schizophrenic patients often have abnormal responses in vestibular testing.

Psychiatric, in particular schizophrenic, patients are more susceptible to motion sickness.

Feeling dizzy or unsteady is among the 13 major symptoms of panic attacks as defined in DSM-IV, and the dizziness may even be present between attacks.²

Psychiatric morbidity is high in unselected patients with vestibular disorders.³ and remains high in . . . [Full text of this article]