Betahistine for Treatment in Menère's Disease with Statistical Analysis

• Published in: Japanese Journal of National Medical Services Vol. 22; no. 5; pp. 650 - 665
• Main Authors: OKAMOTO, Ken, HAZEYAMA, Fumiteru, TAIRA, Tetsuo, YOSHIDA, Akio, ONODA, Taikobo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Japanese
• Published: Japanese Society of National Medical Services 1968
• ISSN: 0021-1699; 1884-8729
• DOI: 10.11261/iryo1946.22.650

The efficacy of Betahistine in treatment of Mèniere's disease was evaluated in clinical study and statistical analysis. A preliminary pilot study was first carried out on 21 patients with this disease who were given Betahistine orally for a period of two weeks (504mg in total dose), and whose signs and symptoms were compared before and after the administration. The signs and symptoms taken into consideration in the study were nine in total and listed as below. The results were tabulated and tested according to multi-variable analysis. From this study it was concluded that Betahistine is uniformly effective in all cases studied. Equilibrium seemed most remarkably improved, followed by paroxysmal dizziness, vertigo, headache in this order, Auditory acuity was hardly improved by the medication. On the basis of this pilot study, a double-blind study in 36 patients with this disease was designed. The same items of symptomatology were studied using the same dosage schedule but this time the results were subjected to Fischer's test. In conclusion, Beta-histine was found to be effective beyond the placebo effect in reducing the symptoms of Mèniere's disease in all the study cases. Especially headaches, dysfunction of equilibrium, tinnitus, shoulder stiffness, nystagmus were more amenable to the treatment among the sign and symptoms listed. Hearing improvement was the lesst noticeable. There were no significant side-effects throughout the study period.