Otolaryngologists often have difficulty in examining persons suffering from vertigo or dizziness who also have psychiatric problems. Depression—the most frequent cause of suicide—is especially likely to be overlooked in daily intervention. We investigated how those who were potentially depressed and also vertiginous consulted otolaryngologists using the Self-Rating Questionnaire for Depression (SRQ-D).
We used the SRQ-D to survey 194 vertiginous persons—114 with idiopathic vertigo, 40 with benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, and 40 with Meniere’s disease. Controls were 194 non-vertiginous persons matched by gender and age. Subjects were grouped based on SRQ-D scores, i.e. those scoring 16 or more points (positive) and those scoring 15 or fewer points. Chi-square tests were conducted.
Positivity among vertiginous subjects was 13.4% and that among control subjects 2.1%. Positivity among those with idiopathic vertigo was 12.3% and that among control subjects 1.8%. Positivity among those with benign paroxysmal positional vertigo was 7.5% and that among control subjects 2.5%. Positivity among those with Meniere’s disease was 22.5% and that among control subjects 2.5%. Positivity among subjects who were vertiginous (p<0.01), had idiopathic vertigo (p<0.01), and had Meniere’s disease (p<0.05) was thus significantly higher than among control subjects.
SRQ-D is therefore considered useful in identifying those suspected of depression among vertiginous patients to advise them to seek psychiatric counseling.