Dizziness Depot

The symptoms of vestibular migraine are so varied that the list below represents only a small sample of related complaints that I have heard from suspected Migraineurs: “I have episodes of spinning and nausea that come on without warning, but had no ear symptoms.” “It felt like someone suddenly pulled the rug out from under me.” “I felt a sudden

For the next few weeks, we will discuss Vestibular Migraine (VM). VM has received a lot of attention in the past ten to fifteen years, but was rarely considered as a diagnosis for vertigo and motion intolerance before then. There are still many physicians who don’t consider this diagnosis, and some who are skeptical when the diagnosis is made by

Coincidentally, we are coming up on Thanksgiving. Why coincidentally? Because I hadn’t thought about that fact until I had nearly finished writing this post. The inspiration for this week’s post came from my visit to Arizona last week. I spent a full week at Miraval resort and Spa in Tucson. Miraval is famous for promoting mindfulness, restoration of the body,

Every so often, I run across something that I feel the need to make public. Anyone who does vestibular testing knows there have been many recent changes in reimbursement for these tests. Many specialists can no longer afford to see “dizzy” patients. Not all these changes are the result of Medicare’s reaction to fraudulent billing, but some of them are.

Since we discussed Horizontal Canal (HC) BPPV last week while discussing descriptive analogies we use in patient education, let’s talk a bit more about this variation of BPPV. A 2006 study states that HC BPPV accounts for as much as 13% of all cases of BPPV. My personal experience has been that it is more like 5%. That study looked

This week we wrap up our short series on Meclizine (with an interruption last week to encourage audiologists to participate in upcoming surveys). I wish I had more information for you, but there just isn’t much out there. That is my concern. I am not “anti-antivert.” I just think it is poorly understood, has not undergone any recent rigorous testing,

I am currently sitting on a plane traveling from Los Angeles to my home near Charlotte, NC. This past week, I attended an American Medical Association meeting where we discussed a very important issue: vestibular code surveys. The American Academy of Audiology and the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) and will be surveying Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes related to vestibular

We know that epidemiology studies are influenced by the person or specialty performing the study. For example, ear specialists will find vestibular disorders as the cause for the complaint of dizziness more often than will primary care physicians. Is this because of the tests performed or simply the perspective of the examiner? Well, you won’t find it if you ain’t

Numerous researchers have noted a correlation between vestibular disorders and anxiety or panic disorder.  As noted last week, whether vestibular disorders may lead to panic disorder or whether vestibular complaints are consequential of panic disorder is a subject of much speculation and research. Here is a short summary (with my snarky comments inserted in parentheses) of some research on the

Anxiety seems to be part of everyone’s daily life. Some days we manage it well, other days we succumb to road rage, yell at the dog, do some meditation, or hang in there until cocktail hour. Many people resort to some type of pharmaceutical panacea, the most common being Xanax, Valium and Ativan. If one were to do nothing more