ABSTRACT
Psychogenic, somatoform or functional dizziness refers to dizziness in the absence of objective organic pathology or an alternative diagnosis that is able to explain its presence. It is a common problem: 20% of primary care patients seek help for dizziness during their lifetime. This chapter focuses on the importance of neuropsychiatric contributions to these disorders and their treatment from a primarily psychopharmacological but also psychotherapeutic perspective. The involvement of these neuropsychiatric disorders in disability and poor prognosis is something well recognized today in a variety of different clinical conditions. In phobic positional vertigo (PPV), this was so much the case that it has been debated as to whether PPV was in fact a vestibular or a psychiatric disorder. Psychotherapy, specifically cognitive behavioural therapy, has been examined in a number of trials looking at PPV or chronic subjective dizziness (CSD).
