Vertigo

What is vertigo?

Vertigo makes you feel as though the room around you is spinning, and it can affect your balance and make you feel dizzy. It can also occur with other symptoms like nausea and vomiting, tinnitus (ringing in your ears), and headaches.

Vertigo is similar to dizziness — both are balance problems, but they’re not the same. Dizziness is the feeling you’re unbalanced, while vertigo is the feeling that you or your surroundings are moving or rotating.

Peripheral vertigo is caused by a problem with your inner ear. Central vertigo is caused by a brain problem like an infection, tumor, traumatic injury, or stroke.

An attack of vertigo might last from a few seconds to several minutes. People with severe vertigo might have symptoms that persist for hours, even months.

Why might I get vertigo?

Conditions for which vertigo is a primary symptom include:

Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV)

BPPV is the leading cause of vertigo. It happens when you change your head’s position and tiny crystals in your inner ear shift. This affects your sense of balance, making you feel like you’re rotating.

Meniere’s disease

Meniere’s disease causes a fluid buildup inside your ear that triggers vertigo attacks.

Labyrinthitis

Labyrinthitis is inflammation or infection of part of your inner ear. It can affect the vestibulocochlear nerve, which sends information to your brain about your position and head motion.

Vestibular neuritis

Vestibular neuritis is similar to labyrinthitis but affects the vestibular nerve in your inner ear.

Cholesteatoma

If you get a lot of ear infections, you might develop a noncancerous growth in your middle ear. This growth is called a cholesteatoma, and it can cause dizziness and vertigo.

Many other conditions might cause vertigo, including migraines, cardiac arrhythmia (an irregular heartbeat), low blood pressure (orthostatic hypotension), multiple sclerosis (MS), and an acoustic neuroma, a benign tumor on the balance nerve in your inner ear.

Your provider at Sunset Neurological & Psychiatry Group runs tests to determine the cause of your vertigo so that they can prescribe the best treatment.

How is vertigo treated?

Treatment for vertigo varies according to the cause. Medications like antibiotics, steroids, and anti-nausea medicines can often help. Physical therapy like vestibular rehabilitation and canalith repositioning can help with an inner ear problem like BPPV.

If you have a neurological condition like a brain tumor or an injury to your central nervous system (brain and spinal cord), you might need surgery. The experienced neurologists at Sunset Neurological & Psychiatry Group can advise you of the best treatment.

If vertigo affects your life, visit Sunset Neurological & Psychiatry Group for expert diagnosis and care. Call their office today or book an appointment online.