title: Psychological condition in patients with intractable Meniere's disease.
abstract: CONCLUSIONS
  Physicians should consider additional treatment strategies for Meniere's disease patients with a long history of disease and hearing loss in the secondary affected ear and also provide psychological support regarding future progressive bilateral hearing loss.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To treat intractable Meniere's disease patients effectively, we need to understand the psychological condition of each patient. We examined the state of neurosis and depression in patients and correlated this with demographic and background information.
  
  
  METHODS
  Between 1998 and 2009, we enrolled 207 patients with intractable Meniere's disease in this prospective study. We used the Cornell Medical Index and the Self-rating Depression Scale to evaluate their psychological condition. We also obtained demographic and background information relating to sex, age, duration of disease, vertigo frequency, hearing level in bilateral sides, and plasma vasopressin level.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Neurosis and depression was diagnosed in 40.1% and 60.4%, respectively, of patients with intractable Meniere's disease. Our results showed that surgical treatment significantly improved vertigo and hearing ability in patients with no psychological symptoms compared with those exhibiting psychological symptoms. Patients with a longer duration and worse hearing level in the secondary affected ear had a significantly higher incidence of mental illness than those with a shorter duration and better level of hearing.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Osaka University School of Medicine, Osaka, Japan.
authors.forename: Masashi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Furukawa
authors.forename: Tadashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kitahara
authors.forename: Arata
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Horii
authors.forename: Atsuhiko
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Uno
authors.forename: Takao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Imai
authors.forename: Yumi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ohta
authors.forename: Tetsuo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Morihana
authors.forename: Hidenori
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Inohara
authors.forename: Yasuo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Mishiro
authors.forename: Masafumi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sakagami
mesh_terms: D003863:Depression / Q000209:etiology; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D008575:Meniere Disease / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology* / Q000601:surgery; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012044:Regression Analysis