Because the cause of Meniere’s disease is unknown, there are many treatments, but no cure. The goal is to reduce symptoms to a tolerable level and achieve improvement as quickly as possible. Doctors prescribe medications to relieve the nausea and vomiting, and IV fluids are also administered to promote blood flow.
Meniere’s disease: betahistine reduces pressure
Patients with Meniere’s disease particularly benefit from high-dose therapy with the histamine antagonist betahistine, according to current evidence. Histamine antagonists are agents that reverse or attenuate the effects of histamine on tissues. Histamines play a major role in the immune system‘s defense reactions.
Within a year, the vertigo attacks almost completely disappear. Betahistine is also successfully used to prevent attacks over a longer period of time. The active ingredient reduces endolymph pressure in the inner ear. The active substance should be taken regularly for at least six months, preferably up to 24 months. This Meniére’s disease therapy was well tolerated. Only two patients experienced mild nausea.
Meniere’s disease: psychological support important
Meniere’s patients are correspondingly very insecure as a result of the vertigo attacks, which often begin abruptly. For fear of suffering an attack in public, they withdraw. Loneliness, insecurity and anxiety are the result. The therapy of vertigo attacks also includes the treatment and care of the annoying tinnitus, to which the patients are exposed in a more or less pronounced form.
In the meantime, treatment concepts have emerged which, although they cannot promise elimination of the tinnitus, can achieve the goal, namely the reduction of the psycho-acoustic burden caused by the ringing in the ears, in most cases. Valuable aids in Meniére’s disease are so-called tinnitus masks and, in the case of simultaneous hearing loss, the use of hearing aids.
