Therapeutic patient education and exercise therapy in patients with cervicogenic dizziness: a prospective case series clinical study

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a treat-ment for patients with cervicogenic dizziness that consisted of thera-peutic education and exercises. The Dizziness Handicap Inventory and Neck Disability Index were used. Secondary outcomes included range of motion, postural control, and psychological variables. Seven patients (two males and five females) aged 38.43±14.10 with cervicogenic dizzi-ness were included. All the participants received eight treatment ses-sions. The treatment was performed twice a week during a four weeks period. Outcome measures included a questionnaire (demographic data, body chart, and questions about pain) and self-reported disability, pain, and psychological variables. Subjects were examined for cervical range of motion and postural control. All of these variables were as-sessed pre- and postintervention. Participants received eight sessions of therapeutic education patient and therapeutic exercise. The majority of participants showed an improvement in catastrophism (mean change, 11.57±7.13; 95% confidence interval [CI], 4.96–18.17; d=1.60), neck disability (mean change, 5.14±2.27.28; 95% CI, 3.04–7.24; d=1.32), and dizziness disability (mean change, 9.71±6.96; 95% CI, 3.26–16.15; d=1.01). Patients also showed improved range of motion in the right and left side. Therapeutic patient education in combination with thera-peutic exercise was an effective treatment. Future research should in-vestigate the efficacy of therapeutic patient education and exercise with larger sample sizes of patients with cervicogenic dizziness.