Dizziness can be associated with otologic, neurologic, medical, and psychia
tric conditions. This paper focuses on the interface between otologic and p
sychiatric conditions. Because dizziness often is situation specific, conce
pts of space and motion sensitivity (SMS), space and motion discomfort (SMD
), and space and motion phobia (SMP) are needed to understand the interface
. We present a framework involving several categories of interactions betwe
en balance and psychiatric disorders. The first category is that of dizzine
ss caused by psychiatric disorder (psychiatric dizziness), including hyperv
entilation-induced dizziness during panic attacks. The second category invo
lves chance cooccurrence of a psychiatric disorder and a balance disorder i
n the same patient. The third category involves problematic coping with bal
ance symptoms (psychiatric overlay). The fourth category provides psycholog
ical explanations for the relationship between anxiety and balance disorder
s, including somatopsychic and psychosomatic relationships. The final categ
ory, neurological linkage, focuses on the overlap in the neurological circu
itry involved in balance disorders and anxiety disorders. (C) 2001 Elsevier
Science Inc. All rights reserved.