[Psychologic factor in Menière's disease].

Although a number of authors have evoked a psychosomatic etiology for Ménière's disease, few works have dealt specifically with this subject. Forty-eight patients with authentic Ménière's disease underwent a series of psychometric self-evaluation determinations, in addition to a complete, repeated ENT examination. The first questionnaire, the SCL 90, explored the psychological profile. The second questionnaire, the QD 2 A, explored the depressive tendency. This study clearly showed that patients with Ménière's disease present a psychopathological profile which significantly differs to that of a reference population, particularly in terms of level of anxiety, depressive tendency and phobia. The latter points are of real practical importance, since they imply that improvements in Ménière's disease call for treatment of the phobic component in addition to the anxious-depressive component. Finally, there is an obvious correlation between the extent of hearing loss, in turn related to the frequency of vertigo attacks, and the severity of psychopathological disorders.