Vertigo and dizziness are common symptoms that can affect your balance and sense of movement. They often go hand-in-hand, but they are not exactly the same.
What is Vertigo ?
This is when you feel like you or your surroundings are spinning or moving. It’s often described as a “spinning sensation.”
What is Dizzines ?
This is a more general term for feeling lightheaded, unsteady, or off-balance.
What is cause of Vertigo and Dizzines ?
There are several possible causes for vertigo and dizziness:
- Inner Ear Problems (Peripheral Vestibular Disorders):
- Meniere’s disease: This affects the fluid balance in your inner ear.
- Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV): Tiny crystals in your inner ear become dislodged, leading to brief episodes of vertigo.
- Vestibular Neuritis: Inflammation of the vestibular nerve, which can cause severe vertigo.
- Brain and Nervous System Issues (Central Vestibular Disorders):
- Migraines: Some people experience dizziness or vertigo as part of a migraine attack.
- Multiple Sclerosis (MS): This condition can affect the nerves that control balance.
- Brain Tumors: In rare cases, brain tumors can cause dizziness or vertigo.
- Other Causes:
- Medications: Certain drugs can cause dizziness as a side effect.
- Anxiety or Panic Disorders: Sometimes, dizziness can be related to anxiety or panic attacks.
- Orthostatic Hypotension: This occurs when your blood pressure drops suddenly when you stand up, leading to dizziness.
How common is Vertigo ?
Vertigo and dizziness are fairly common. Studies show that around 6.5% to 11% of people experience them within a year. It’s more common in women than men.
Types of Vertigo:
Acute Vertigo:
Acute, severe attacks of vertigo can last for hours to days
(e.g. where there is sudden unilateral loss of vestibular function)
Chronic Vertigo :
Symptom persistent more than 3 month. Alternatively, recurrent spontaneous episodes can occur
(e.g. due to unstable vestibular lesions or in BPPV)
Vertigo can be vestibular (i.e. dysfunction in the sensory system that controls balance and eye movements) or non-vestibular (e.g. blood-flow irregularities) in origin.
Vestibular vertigo is classified based on the site of the lesion
Central vestibular vertigo: Central vestibular causes of vertigo are found at the
level of the brainstem, cerebellum or cortex.
Vestibular migraine is the most common cause of central, recurrent attacks of vertigo
Types of symptom of Vertigo
1-Spinning Vertigo:
- Characterized by a sensation of spinning or rotation.
- Often associated with conditions like benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) or acute unilateral vestibulopathy.
- Can be caused by lesions in the vestibular nerve, brainstem, or cerebellum.
2-Dizziness and Postural Imbalance:
- Manifests as a sense of unsteadiness or difficulty maintaining balance.
- Commonly seen in bilateral vestibulopathy, post-traumatic otolith dizziness, or functional dizziness.
- Can also occur after successful treatment for BPPV due to partial repositioning of ear crystals.
3-Lightheadedness
- Described as a feeling of faintness or lightheadedness.
- Often associated with functional dizziness or side effects of certain medications.
Vertigo: Treatment aims and options
Vertigo treatments aim to eliminate the hallucination of motion and to reduce or eliminate neurovegetative and/or psychoaffective symptoms, as well as to enhance the process of vestibular compensation.
A range of treatments are available, which can be used alone or in combination:
Drug Therapy: To enable patients to cope with their acute symptoms (e.g. nausea and vomiting) and stop the rotational sensation. In the longer term, the treatment aim is to diminish future episodes and hasten compensation and adaptation
Physical Therapy: Vestibular exercises are performed to support vestibular rehabilitation, central compensation of acute vestibular loss and balance skills.Examples include the Epley manoeuvre and the PRM
Cognitive behavioural therapy : To enable patients to learn to live with the symptoms and alleviate the anxiety, as well as treat the accompanying depression
Surgical therapy : Usually reserved for patients who do not respond well to other treatments.Different surgical interventions are performed depending on the type of vertigo.
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