Chronic subjective dizziness: Analysis of underlying personality factors.
Chronic subjective dizziness (CSD) is characterized by persistent dizziness, unsteadiness, and hypersensitivity to one's own motion or exposure to complex visual stimuli. CSD may be triggered, in predisposed individuals with specific personality traits, by acute vestibular diseases. CSD is also thought to arise from failure to re-establish normal balance strategies after resolution of acute vestibular events which may be modulated by diathesis to develop anxiety and depression.



To confirm the role of personality traits linked to anxiety and depression (i.e., neuroticism, introversion, low openness) as predisposing factors for CSD and to evaluate how individual differences in these personality traits are associated with CSD severity.



We compared 19 CSD patients with 24 individuals who had suffered from periferal vestibular disorders (PVD) (i.e., Benign Paroxysmal Postural Vertigo or Vestibular Neuritis) but had not developed CSD as well as with 25 healthy controls (HC) in terms of personality traits, assessed via the NEO-PI-R questionnaire.



CSD patients, relative to PVD patients and HCs, scored higher on the anxiety facet of neuroticism. Total neuroticism scores were also significantly associated with dizziness severity in CSD patients but not PVD patients.



Pre-existing anxiety-related personality traits may promote and sustain the initial etiophatogenetic mechanisms linked with the development of CSD. Targeting anxiety-related mechanisms in CSD may be therefore a promising way to reduce the disability associated with CSD.
Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, Audiology and Phoniatrics Unit, Magna Graecia University, Catanzaro, Italy.
G
G
Chiarella
Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, Audiology and Phoniatrics Unit, Magna Graecia University, Catanzaro, Italy.
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C
Petrolo
Institute of Bioimaging and Molecular Physiology, National Research Council, Catanzaro, Italy.
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R
Riccelli
Institute of Bioimaging and Molecular Physiology, National Research Council, Catanzaro, Italy.
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L
Giofrè
Institute of Bioimaging and Molecular Physiology, National Research Council, Catanzaro, Italy.
G
G
Olivadese
Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Universitá Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy.
F M
FM
Gioacchini
Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Salerno, Italy.
A
A
Scarpa
Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Salerno, Italy.
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E
Cassandro
Institute of Bioimaging and Molecular Physiology, National Research Council, Catanzaro, Italy.|Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
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L
Passamonti
D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology; D015984:Causality; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003863:Depression / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology; D004244:Dizziness / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D007439:Introversion, Psychological; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009497:Neurotic Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology; D010551:Personality; D010556:Personality Tests; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D015837:Vestibular Diseases / Q000145:classification / Q000209:etiology; D014724:Vestibular Function Tests
CSD; Chronic dizziness; anxiety; introversion; neuroticism; openness; vestibular