Case Report

Phobic postural vertigo treated with autogenic training: a case report

Fumiyuki Goto^1,2 , Kimiko Nakai^1,2* , Takanobu Kunihiro^2* and Kaoru Ogawa^2*

¹  Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Hino Municipal Hospital, Tamadaira 4-3-1, Hino-shi, Tokyo 191-0062, Japan

²  Department of Otolaryngology, Keio University School of Medicine, 35 Shinanomachi, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160-8520, Japan

author email corresponding author email* Contributed equally

Cases Journal 2008, 1:189doi:10.1186/1757-1626-1-189

Published:	30 September 2008

Abstract

Background

Patients suffering from dizziness due to vertigo are commonly encountered in the department of otolaryngology. If various clinical examinations do not reveal any objective findings, then the patients are referred to the department of internal medicine or psychiatry. In many cases, the diagnosis is psychological dizziness. Phobic postural vertigo, which was first reported by Brandt T et al in 1994, is supposed to be a type of psychological dizziness. The diagnosis is based on 6 characteristics proposed by Brandt et al. Patients are usually treated with conventional medical therapy, but some cases may be refractory to such a therapy. Psychotherapy is recommended in some cases; however, psychotherapy including autogenic training, which can be used for general relaxation, is not widely accepted. This paper describes the successful administration of autogenic training in a patient suffering from phobic postural vertigo.

Case presentation

We present a case of a patient who suffered from phobic postural vertigo. A 37-year-old female complained of dizziness. She had started experiencing dizziness almost 3 years She was intractable to many sort of conventional therapy. In the end, her symptom disappeared after introduction of autogenic training.

Conclusion

Autogenic training can be a viable and acceptable treatment option for phobic postural vertigo patients who fail to respond to other therapies. This case emphasizes the importance of autogenic training as a method to control symptom of phobic postural vertigo.