What Is The Treatment For Vertigo When Suffering From Panic Disorder And Generalized Anxiety Disorder?

Posted on Fri, 10 Jan 2014

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Fri, 10 Jan 2014 Answered on

Thu, 30 Jan 2014 Last reviewed on

Question : So I had a bad bout of vertigo the other night around 2am. I woke up almost feel over but caught myself. Continued to feel dizzy after and felt better lying down. I have no other problems, blood pressure is normal so is glucose levels and blood work thyroid ok, no fever (got a physical back in september). I started feeling this off balance feeling more this past sunday while watching football. It seemed to have gotten worse because I also suffer from panic disorder and GAD. I have been homebound agoraphobic since october after a very bad panic attack while driving on the freeway. The vertigo is also worse when I'm around people as opposed to being alone at home. I take no medications for my disorders, only vitamins B-complex and Inositol (500mg twice a day). I was told my severe anxiety make the vertigo feel worse than it is. I've not fallen or passed out due to it. But it's made the last couple of days extremely hard for me. Is it BPPV? I also feel more dizzy when theres more people in this house as opposed to being alone. Could it be anxiety messing with something in my inner ear to cause this? Please help!

Answered by Dr. Srikanth Reddy (2 days later)

Brief Answer: Panic attacks have to be treated Detailed Answer: Hello, Thanks for choosing health care magic for posting your query. I have gone through your question in detail and I can understand what you are going through. The episodes that you are describing of dizziness could be due to vertigo and yes you are right in suggesting that presence of panic disorder worsens the experience of vertigo. But the other possibility is that your dizziness could be a manifestion of panic disorder per se. The fact that they occur more commonly when there are people around than when alone goes more in favour of panic attacks as vertigo generally has nothing to do with people around. You should get treated for panic disorders. Paroxetine is one drug which I frequently use for my patients in the dose of 12.5 mg at night and this helps them a lot for anxiety. Other drug options are venlafaxine, clonazepam, propranolol etc. You may discuss these options with your treating psychiatrist. If it does not respind to panic treatment then you may need to take treatement for vertigo. Vertin and dizitac are good drugs for vertigo. Hope I am able to answer your concerns. If you have any further query, I would be glad to help you. If not, you may close the discussion and if possible you may rate the answer for me, so that I get a feedback. In future if you wish to contact me directly, you can use the below mentioned link: bit.ly/dr-srikanth-reddy Wish you good health, Kind regards Dr. Srikanth Reddy M.D.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Prasad