Vestibular dysfunction: Prevalence, impact and need for targeted treatment

This manuscript is the first in a series on vestibular neuropharmacology, and serves to establish why it is important to develop pharmacologic interventions to treat disorders of the vestibular system. We will review the prevalence of vestibular disorders, present studies that describe the impact of vestibular disorders on quality of life and clinically significant outcomes such as falls, and discuss the need for rational, targeted treatment. We will advance a central hypothesis, that for vestibular disorders with a well-defined pathophysiology, targeted, effective treatments exist.