The cause of dizziness in elderly patients may be cardiovascular. A study of 417 patients in the Netherlands, published in the May-June issue of Annals of Family Medicine, found that cardiovascular disease was the most common cause of dizziness in patients older than 65-it was deemed the cause in 57% of cases. The next most common causes were peripheral vestibular disease (14%)and psychiatric illness (10%). The authors used physician panels to assess dizziness in primary care patients, in contrast to other studies on the topic, which have mainly used a single-clinician approach and have been conducted in secondary and tertiary care settings. The researchers are planning a follow-up case study because there have been few studies on dizziness in primary care. In the meantime, they recommend that clinicians conduct systematic assessments of dizziness in the elderly to identify other contributory causes that are amenable to treatment, such as adverse drug effects or impaired vision.