Background and history of the interface between anxiety and vertigo

The comorbidity of vertigo and anxiety has been an integral component of th e medical literature since antiquity. In the works of Plate, the same terms were used in the context of vertigo, inebriation, height vertigo, disorien tation, and mental confusion. In classical medicine, vertigo had the ambigu ous status of being both a disease per se and a symptom of other diseases s uch as hypochondriacal melancholy. Further, two etiologies were described f or vertigo: an origin in the head (brain) and an origin in the hypochondria (abdominal viscera). In the course of the development of a detailed neurol ogic taxonomy of vertigo in the latter half of the nineteenth century, a de bate ensued whether agoraphobia was a form of vertigo or a distinct psychia tric condition. Elucidation of this forgotten debate, within its historical context, provides insights into the recent rediscovery of the balance-anxi ety interface. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.