Phobic Postural Vertigo

Aim: Phobic postural vertigo (PPV) is the most common cause of chronic dizziness in middle-aged patients. Many patients report symptoms involving gait, is characterized by subjective dizziness and disturbance of balance and is one of the most frequent causes of chronic dizziness Methods: 20 patients with PPV ( men compared with women) were clinical evaluated-gait and anxiety evaluated. Results: After normal walking, eye closed walking and obstacle walking we evaluate capacity of the patients to walk between 2 groups (men/women) and the results revealed a significant reduction of walking speeds in PPV patients under the conditions of walking over the obstacle at women with increasing of fear sensation. Conclusions: PPV patients show characteristic gait alterations: a reduced gait speed and vertigo on obstacle walking in special at women. This changes correlate with the patients’ subjective fear of falling. Moreover, dualtask and eyes closed walking paradigms suggest that walking in PPV patients is characterized by an increased attention control and a higher reliance on visual imput, similar with obstacle walking.