POST-CONCUSSIONAL DIZZINESSAn Investigation by Means of Monolabyrinthine Caloric Stimulation

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Abstract
An otoneurologic and psychologic investigation has been performed on 125 subjects. The subjects were placed in 3 groups of approximately equal size. They belonged to the following categories: Patients with post-concussional dizziness (non-rotatory vertigo), forming part of a post-traumatic cerebral syndrome; Patients with dizziness as a component in a psychoneurotic syndrome; Persons who considered themselves that they were well. The study included the intensity and asymmetry of the responses in the routine caloric test, the magnitude of habituation to repeated identical thermal monolabyrinthine stimulation, and the occurrence of vertigo and nystagmus responses to irrigations of the same ear with water at a temperature of 37.5[degree] C. The responses to 2 suggestibility tests and the replies to questions in a neuroticism inventory were also studied. No evidence was obtained to support the assumption that post-concussional dizziness may be caused by persisting lesions in the vestibular system. Some of the observations suggested that post-concussional dizziness may arise originally as a result of a transitory disturbance in vestibular function and then persist because of expectation suggestibility in situations that are assumed to give rise to vertigo.