Psychological distress longitudinally mediates the effect of vertigo symptoms on vertigo-related handicap

•Psychological distress was tested as mediator between vertigo symptoms and handicap.•Depression, anxiety, and somatization were mediators in single mediation models.•Depression remained a mediator when controlling for anxiety and somatization.•Psychological distress contributes to the process how symptoms lead to handicap.

Objective: Vertigo symptoms can lead to more or less vertigo-related handicap. This longitudinal study investigated whether depression, anxiety, and/or somatization mediate the relationship between vertigo symptoms and vertigo-related handicap.Methods: N = 111 patients with vertigo/dizziness provided complete data on the following measures: Vertigo symptoms at baseline, depression at 6-month follow-up, anxiety at 6-month follow-up, somatization at 6-month follow-up, and vertigo handicap at 12-month follow-up. Mediation analyses with bootstrapping were performed to investigate the mediating role of anxiety, depression, and somatization in the relationship between vertigo symptoms and vertigo-related handicap.Results: When the mediating role of anxiety, depression, and somatization was evaluated separately from each other in single mediation models, the effect vertigo symptoms at baseline exerted on vertigo-related handicap at 12-month follow-up was significantly mediated by depression at 6-month follow-up (p < 0.05), by anxiety at 6-month follow-up (p < 0.05), as well as by somatization at 6-month follow-up (p < 0.05). When statistically controlling for the other mediators in a multiple mediator model, only depression at 6-month follow-up mediated the effect of vertigo symptoms at baseline on vertigo-related handicap at 12-month follow-up (p < 0.05).Conclusion: Psychological distress is an important mechanism in the process how vertigo symptoms lead to vertigo-related handicap.