Vestibular Habituation Training: Specificity of Adequate Exercise

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Abstract
• Test results in patients with positional (provoked) vertigo corroborated the necessity of selecting the exercises for each particular patient. A test battery of 19 maneuvers was used. Results of all maneuvers were found to be positive, but in various combinations, constituting several interindividually different patterns. The basic requirement of vestibular habituation training for positional vertigo is that vertigo should be elicited. Indeed it has been experimentally shown that the error situation itself is the very stimulus for compensation and adaptation to develop. Only maneuvers eliciting vertigo fulfill the requirement of adequate exercises. As the testing showed that the combinations of positive maneuvers were different from one patient to another, prior testing of the patient is necessary to prescribe adequate exercises. (Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg 1988;114:883-886)