Potential effects of multimodal psychosomatic inpatient treatment for patients with functional vertigo and dizziness symptoms - A pilot trial

Objectives Functional vertigo and dizziness (VD) are frequent and severely distressing complaints that are often described as hard to treat. Our aim was to provide preliminary data on potential effects of multimodal psychosomatic inpatient therapy for patients with functional VD symptoms in reducing vertigo-related handicap and related psychopathology, and to evaluate the role of symptom burden and body-related locus of control in predicting vertigo-related handicap at follow-up. Design We conducted an uncontrolled clinical pilot trial. Methods We included data of n = 72 inpatients with functional VD as a primary symptom and various psychopathological and/or physical comorbidities admitted for multimodal psychosomatic inpatient treatment. Patients completed self-report questionnaires assessing vertigo-related handicap (VHQ), somatization (PHQ-15), depression (BDI-II), anxiety (BAI), health-related quality of life (HRQOL; SF-36), and body-related locus of control (KLC) at admission (T0), discharge (T1), and 6 months after discharge (T2). Results We observed medium effects for the change of vertigo-related handicap (T0-T1: g = -0.60, T0-T2: g = -0.67) and small effects for the change of somatization (T0-T1: g = -0.29, T0-T2: g = -0.24), mental HRQOL (T0-T1: g = 0.43, T0-T2: g = 0.49), and depression (T0-T1: g = -0.41, T0-T2: g = -0.28) from admission to discharge and admission to follow-up. Body-related locus of control did not predict vertigo-related handicap at follow-up. Conclusions Findings provide preliminary evidence for the beneficial role of psychosomatic inpatient treatment for patients with functional VD symptoms. Potentially relevant predictors of outcome at follow-up are discussed. Practitioner points The change of vertigo-related handicap and related variables through multimodal psychosomatic inpatient treatment was evaluated in a clinical pilot trial in patients with functional vertigo and dizziness. We observed medium effects for the change of vertigo-related handicap and small effects for the change of somatization, mental health-related quality of life, and depression. Internal body-related locus of control at admission did not predict vertigo-related handicap at follow-up.