Chronic Dizziness

This article covers distinct causes of chronic dizziness including persistent postural perceptual dizziness, mal de débarquement syndrome, motion sickness and visually induced motion sickness, bilateral vestibulopathy, and persistent dizziness after mild concussion. RECENT FINDINGS To date, none of the disorders above has a cure but are considered chronic syndromes with fluctuations that are both innate and driven by environmental stressors. As such, the mainstay of therapy for chronic disorders of dizziness involves managing factors that exacerbate symptoms and adding vestibular rehabilitation or cognitive-behavioral therapy alone or in combination, as appropriate. These therapies are supplemented by serotonergic antidepressants that modulate sensory gating and reduce anxiety. Besides expectation management, ruling out concurrent disorders and recognizing behavioral and lifestyle factors that affect symptom severity are critical issues in reducing morbidity for each disorder. SUMMARY Many syndromes of chronic dizziness can be diagnosed by recognition of key features, although many symptoms overlap between these groups. Symptoms may be manageable and improve with time, but they are often incompletely relieved.
Source: CONTINUUM: Lifelong Learning in Neurology - Category: Neurology Tags: REVIEW ARTICLES Source Type: research