Treating pediatric psychogenic dizziness with a Japanese herbal medicine.

No conventional pharmacotherapy is available for the treatment of psychogenic dizziness in pediatric patients. Adults with psychogenic dizziness are treated with psychiatric medicines as the standard treatment. In children, this treatment is not widely accepted because of the potential for adverse reactions. Instead, Kampo, an alternative medicine, is probably the best choice of treatment. We report herein three of four cases of pediatric psychogenic dizziness successfully treated with Yoku-kan-san-ka-chimpi-hange (YKCH), a traditional Japanese Kampo medicine known to ameliorate psychiatric symptoms. YKCH was prescribed to four patients (two boys and two girls) with psychiatric dizziness whose ages ranged from 11 to 15 years. Four weeks after the initiation of treatment, clinical improvement was assessed by the Clinical Global impression-Improvement scale. In three of the four patients, the drug showed some significant effects. The remaining patient could not continue the medication. It is reasonable to assume that YKCH was effective because of its serotonergic mechanism and the improvement of sleep in our patients. This report is the first to describe the beneficial effects of YKCH in the treatment of pediatric psychogenic dizziness. We conclude that administration of YKCH may be a suitable complementary therapy for pediatric psychogenic dizziness. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Citation

Fumiyuki Goto, Noriko Morimoto, Hidenobu Taiji, Tomoko Tsutumi, Kaoru Ogawa. Treating pediatric psychogenic dizziness with a Japanese herbal medicine. Explore (New York, N.Y.). 2013 Jan-Feb;9(1):41-3

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PMID: 23294819

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