Many patients ask about “dizziness” and often ask, “I’m dizzy, how can I treat it?” But I don’t know how to explain the characteristics of my dizziness. I find that in most cases it is difficult to answer these questions online. The reason is that the majority of patients who ask questions about dizziness online have blind spots in their statements and provide a partial history that is unclear and can directly affect clinical judgment. In order to make your consultation more effective, the following is an outline that I have provided for you. Please summarize the characteristics of your dizziness before consulting, as this will largely help your doctor to make the initial and most critical step in the right direction of diagnosis and treatment. Sun Wei, Department of Neurology, Peking University First Hospital
1) Describe the specific nature of the dizziness, dizziness? A feeling of dizziness? Light-headedness? A feeling of imbalance? Self-rotation? A sense of rotation of objects in the external environment? You can also use analogies to describe your dizziness, such as the feeling of rocking in a boat? Drunkenness? The feeling of not being well rested? etc.
2) Time of dizziness. What was the age when the dizziness first occurred? Paroxysmal or persistent? If persistent dizziness, how long did the dizziness last (e.g., seconds, minutes, hours, days, etc.)?
If paroxysmal dizziness, frequency of dizziness episodes? Approximate number of episodes over a period of time? Duration of each episode of dizziness? How often do they occur at intervals?
3) What are the accompanying symptoms of dizziness? Is there any tinnitus (bilateral or bilateral)? Deafness? Nausea? Vomiting? Is there any blurred or double vision during dizziness? Slurred speech? Numbness? Weakness of limbs (poor strength of one or both upper or lower limbs)?
4) Relationship between dizziness and body position (lying, sitting, standing, walking) and head position (head position). Is there any relationship between dizziness and lying, sitting, or standing? Does dizziness occur only when standing from a lying or sitting position? Is there a relationship between dizziness and changes in head position, such as turning the head, turning over in the prone position, lowering the head, tilting the head, etc.? If so, is dizziness associated with only a certain head position change? Or can any change in head position cause dizziness?
5) Is there any trigger or co-morbidity? For example, was there any fever or infection before the dizziness? Any otologic disease such as otitis media? Migraine? Hypertension, hyperglycemia, hyperlipidemia, cardiovascular disease, etc.
Of course, since there are many causes of dizziness, most of the time it is necessary to check the body during the interview and select the necessary auxiliary tests in order to make further judgment, so online consultation may still not be able to make a clear judgment. However, clarifying the characteristics of your dizziness will largely help your doctor to make the initial and most crucial step in the right direction of diagnosis and treatment.