Vestibular drop attacks in Ménière's disease and its association with migraine.

PURPOSE

We explored the association of vestibular drop attacks (VDA) with or without migraine in patients with Ménière's disease (MD) and compared with patients classified as vestibular migraine (VM).

METHOD

The study involved a cross-sectional survey design. Data were collected from 401 members of Finnish Ménière Federation who experienced VDA.

RESULTS

In the sample of 401 patients with VDA who did not experience headache, VM was diagnosed among 16.4% participants and migraine not associated with vertigo was experienced among 25.2% of the participants. Severity of postural instability, ability to move, and ability to stand up from chair differed among VDA baseline, VDA migraine and VM patient groups. Syncope associated with VDA was noticed more frequently in VM group. In terms of neurological complaints, except for visual problems, all other symptoms differed significantly between three patient groups. The health-related quality of life also differed between groups with VM group having the worse scores.

CONCLUSIONS

The current study suggests that migraine is common in MD patients who experience VDA. We observed no definite complaint that could be ascertained to VM. The coexistence of migraine increased the impact of complaints associated with VDA.