Vertigo is one of the symptoms most frequently seen by general practitioners. Very often it is only a feeling of uneasiness that is described by patients as dizziness, e.g. due to increased fatigue, overexertion, infectious diseases, headache, cardiac, circulatory, digestive or menstrual disorders, the influence of alcohol and drugs, medication side effects or mental illness. A disturbance of balance, gait unsteadiness or coordination disorders are also often referred to as vertigo.
Vertigo in the narrower sense can be divided into two types for simplification:
1) Rotational vertigo: a feeling of spinning as if on a merry-go-round, sometimes also a feeling of being carried away (lift feeling). This is often associated with nausea and sometimes with images passing before the eyes.
2) Non-directional vertigo. A very common subtype of this is staggering vertigo: swaying of the floor, feeling as if the floor is sinking or being pulled away from under your feet. It is often associated with anxiety.
Causes
The cause of rotational vertigo is usually found in the vestibular organ or vestibular nerves. Often an infection, a circulatory disorder or displacement of the crystals in the organ of balance (positional vertigo) is responsible. More rarely, a tumor is responsible.
Non-directional vertigo can be persistent and in some cases indicates a serious illness, for example a stroke, an acute cerebral hemorrhage, a brain tumor, meningitis, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy or a craniocerebral injury.
Frequent vertigo usually develops without an organic cause, and it can then be referred to as a functional disorder (or as psychogenic or phobic vertigo). Affected persons suffer from attacks of vertigo, a strong feeling of anxiety and other non-specific complaints. There is often also, a panic disorder underlying these phenomena.
