{"id":13784,"date":"2025-07-04T12:17:31","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T10:17:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ivrt.de\/?p=13784"},"modified":"2026-02-06T17:01:05","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T16:01:05","slug":"anti-vertigo-medikamente-in-der-hausarztpraxis-hohe-verordnungsraten-trotz-schwacher-evidenz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ivrt.de\/en\/studien-evidenz\/anti-vertigo-medikamente-in-der-hausarztpraxis-hohe-verordnungsraten-trotz-schwacher-evidenz\/","title":{"rendered":"Anti-vertigo medications in primary care \u2013 high prescription rates despite weak evidence"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>For Healthcare Professionals:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Anti-vertigo medications (AVM) such as betahistine are widely used in primary care despite limited evidence of efficacy. A particular concern: a substantial proportion of prescriptions are long-term\u2014even without a clear <a href=\"https:\/\/ivrt.de\/en\/patientenedukation\/diagnostische-tests-fuer-gleichgewichtsstoerungen-und-schwindelsymptomatik\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"8955\">vestibular diagnosis<\/a>. A recent study from the Netherlands provides the first systematic data on prevalence and treatment duration in general practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\ud83d\udd17 <a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/40550632\/\"><strong>Original study<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Study design:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Design<\/strong>: Retrospective cohort study (routine data analysis)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Database<\/strong>: &gt;1.2 million patients from 269 general practices (NL, 2018\u20132021)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Inclusion<\/strong>: Adults with vestibular symptoms and\/or AVM prescriptions<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Outcomes<\/strong>: Prevalence &amp; duration of AVM prescriptions; predictors of long-term use<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Key results<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Of 73,650 patients with vestibular complaints, 6,172 (<strong>9.2\u202f%<\/strong>) an <strong>AVM prescription<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Thereof <strong>32\u202f% long-term<\/strong> prescriptions.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>88% of treated patients did not have <a href=\"https:\/\/ivrt.de\/en\/patientenedukation\/morbus-meniere\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"7403\">Meniere's disease<\/a>, but <strong>M\u00e9ni\u00e8re\u2019s was associated with long-term use<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Older age<\/strong> increased the likelihood of <strong>long-term AVM therapy<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Patients with <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ivrt.de\/en\/patientenedukation\/gutartiger-paroxysmaler-lagerungsschwindel\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"5936\">benign paroxysmal positional vertigo<\/a> (BPPV) <\/strong>or nonspecific dizziness were <strong>less likely to receive long-term prescriptions<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Urban practices prescribed long-term AVM less frequently.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Conclusion for Practice<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>AVM such as betahistine are <strong>often prescribed off-label and without a confirmed indication<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The <strong>high proportion of long-term use<\/strong> suggests <strong>structural overtreatment<\/strong> especially in cases of nonspecific dizziness or BPPV.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ivrt.de\/en\/patientenedukation\/diagnostische-tests-fuer-gleichgewichtsstoerungen-und-schwindelsymptomatik\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"8955\">Vestibular diagnostics<\/a><\/strong> and <strong>targeted <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ivrt.de\/en\/patientenedukation\/vestibulaere-rehabilitationstherapie-und-gleichgewichtstraining\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"8932\"><strong>vestibular rehabilitation<\/strong> <\/a>are still <strong>rarely utilized in primary care<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\ud83d\udc49 Are you interested in a comprehensive further training in <a href=\"https:\/\/ivrt.de\/en\/patientenedukation\/vestibulaere-rehabilitationstherapie-und-gleichgewichtstraining\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"8932\">vestibular rehabilitation<\/a> and its optimal application?<\/strong><br>Current further education opportunities can be found in the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ivrt.de\/en\/fuer-medizinisches-fachpersonal\/fortbildungssuche\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/ivrt.de\/fuer-medizinisches-fachpersonal\/fortbildungssuche\/\">IVRT Course search<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>For Patients \u2013 Easy to Understand<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dizziness medication for the long term?<\/strong> <strong>Why it often doesn\u2019t help \u2013 and what you can do instead<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many people with dizziness receive so-called anti-dizziness medications from their GP \u2014 for example, betahistine. A new study from the Netherlands has examined how often these drugs are prescribed and whether they are really useful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\ud83d\udcc4 <a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/40550632\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/40421807\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Original study<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What are the findings?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Of more than 73,000 patients with dizziness, around 6,000 received an anti-dizziness drug.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>One third of<\/strong> them took it <strong>dauerhaft <\/strong>- <strong>often without a clear diagnosis<\/strong> such as<a href=\"https:\/\/ivrt.de\/en\/patientenedukation\/morbus-meniere\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"7403\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> Meniere's disease<\/a>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Especially <strong>older adults<\/strong> were more likely to receive <strong>long-term<\/strong> prescriptions.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Those with <strong>mild or <a href=\"https:\/\/ivrt.de\/en\/patientenedukation\/gutartiger-paroxysmaler-lagerungsschwindel\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"5936\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">positional vertigo (BPPV)<\/a><\/strong> were <strong>less likely to be prescribed long-term<\/strong> medication.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In larger cities, doctors tended to prescribe more cautiously.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Why can this be a problem<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>or many of these drugs\u2014including betahistine\u2014there is <strong>no clear proof of effectiveness<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>They may cause <strong>side effects <\/strong>, and the <strong>real cause of dizziness often remains unidentified<\/strong> or untreated.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Especially in BPPV or balance disorders, <strong>Repositioning maneuvers <\/strong>and targeted movement therapy (\"<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ivrt.de\/en\/patientenedukation\/vestibulaere-rehabilitationstherapie-und-gleichgewichtstraining\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"8932\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">vestibular rehabilitation<\/a><\/strong>\") are the treatment of choice.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What you can do<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Are you taking dizziness medication regularly?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2192 Ask your doctor if the treatment is still necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Get your <a href=\"https:\/\/ivrt.de\/en\/patientenedukation\/diagnostische-tests-fuer-gleichgewichtsstoerungen-und-schwindelsymptomatik\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"8955\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>dizziness properly evaluated<\/strong><\/a> \u2014 it may be due to a treatable cause such as <a href=\"https:\/\/ivrt.de\/en\/patientenedukation\/gutartiger-paroxysmaler-lagerungsschwindel\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"5936\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">BPPV<\/a> .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Specially trained therapists can treat these problems effectively <strong>without medication<\/strong> .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>f you want to learn more about <a href=\"https:\/\/ivrt.de\/en\/patientenedukation\/vestibulaere-rehabilitationstherapie-und-gleichgewichtstraining\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"8932\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">vestibular rehabilitation<\/a> and vestibular disorders, check out our <a href=\"https:\/\/ivrt.de\/en\/fuer-betroffene\/patientenedukation\/\" data-type=\"page\" data-id=\"99\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Patient information <\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These treatment options are offered by our <strong>IVRT\u00ae dizziness and vestibular therapists<\/strong> .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dizziness medications are common - <strong>but often unnecessary<\/strong>. An accurate diagnosis and <strong>targeted training often bring more improvement than pills<\/strong>. Get advice from specialized professionals\u2014for safe and effective treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\ud83c\udfaf <strong>Specially trained IVRT\u00ae dizziness and vestibular therapists<\/strong> can be found via our <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ivrt.de\/en\/fuer-betroffene\/therapeutensuche\/\" data-type=\"page\" data-id=\"101\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">IVRT therapist search<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a id=\"_msocom_1\"><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>F\u00fcr Fachpersonal: Anti-Vertigo-Medikamente (AVM) wie Betahistin sind trotz begrenzter Wirksamkeitsnachweise in der Allgemeinmedizin weit verbreitet. Besonders problematisch: Ein erheblicher Teil der Verordnungen erfolgt langfristig \u2013 auch ohne klare vestibul\u00e4re Diagnose. Eine aktuelle Studie aus den Niederlanden liefert nun erstmals systematische Daten zur H\u00e4ufigkeit und Verordnungsdauer in der haus\u00e4rztlichen Versorgung. \ud83d\udd17 Originalstudie auf PubMed Studiendesign: Zentrale [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":13786,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_surecart_dashboard_logo_width":"180px","_surecart_dashboard_show_logo":true,"_surecart_dashboard_navigation_orders":true,"_surecart_dashboard_navigation_invoices":true,"_surecart_dashboard_navigation_subscriptions":true,"_surecart_dashboard_navigation_downloads":true,"_surecart_dashboard_navigation_billing":true,"_surecart_dashboard_navigation_account":true,"_jf_save_progress":"","iawp_total_views":185,"footnotes":""},"categories":[215],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-studien-evidenz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ivrt.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ivrt.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ivrt.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ivrt.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ivrt.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13784"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ivrt.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13784\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17488,"href":"https:\/\/ivrt.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13784\/revisions\/17488"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ivrt.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ivrt.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ivrt.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ivrt.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}