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What Is The Cause And Treatment For Vestibular Neuronitis?

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Posted on Wed, 17 Sep 2014
Question: I awoke last week with severe dizziness at 3:30 AM. I went to the emergency room blood worknfine ct scan head normal. was told it was vertigo was given meclizine, told to follow up with my doctor or specialist. The meclizine did not work at all in the hospital or home. The lightheaded dizzy feeling was constant nonstop. I went to see my ear nose and throat specialist.. He did a hearing test and did some test with moving my head and said I do not have vertigo. I have vestibular neuritis. Could take weeks months to heal . After 5 days which is today i feel alot less dizzy. But now have a bad migraine. I guess I have a lot of anxiety right now , because this severe dizziness feeling was so scary couldn't walk or stand I am scared that they may have missed something on the CAT scan because now I have a bad migraine. And was told it could take weeks for me to feel better when I go online people have it for years and it never goes away why do I suddenly feel better after five days. Still lightheaded but much less? Please help me I don't want to go back to the emergency room
doctor
Answered by Dr. Richard Jackson (13 hours later)
Brief Answer:
All of this is consistent with neuronitis

Detailed Answer:
the syndrome of vestibular neuronitis is a monophasic disease process that is usually severe for 1 week with rotational vertigo, nausea, vomiting, and difficulty walking. by the end of the week it the symptoms are usually less severe but persistent or intermittent in your case. it mainly depends on how fast your brain can become accustomed to the new situation. after the acute phase the symptoms generally last for another 2-3 months before completely resolving and then there can be exacerbations which are less severe but still disabling. the medicines don't work that well except to make you sleepy but the anti nausea ones usually help the most. headaches are common afterwards because of the muscle tightness in the neck and shoulders from the stress. stretching, physical therapy, therapeutic massage , and Tylenol/ibuprofen/alleve/exedrin alone or in combination can probably abort the headaches. they should be taken at symptom onset, not when the pain is severe. use each agent only as directed and no more than three times per week to avoid rebound headaches. the brain has no feeling so nothing was missed on the ct scan. there are other causes of serious headaches that will not show up on ct scans but none of them are headaches which come after vertigo. hope this helps
Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Yogesh D
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Follow up: Dr. Richard Jackson (55 minutes later)
Thank you .. I tried to drive about 40 min it waa ok then starting feeling little dizzy. I came home and was dizzy and walking sideways andcswaying. I took a 1/2 it was .05 and i took half klonopin because anxiety from this but it didnt work . Should intake other half ?
doctor
Answered by Dr. Richard Jackson (14 minutes later)
Brief Answer:
Take the medications as directed by prescriber

Detailed Answer:
I can't help you with medications because I don't have your whole medical history or list of medications. there is nothing particularly dangerous about vertigo unless you are driving or crossing a street or something, it is just a bothersome symptom. meclizine helps some people, Valium helps others so it makes sense that klonopin might help because they are the same type of medication. but if some didn't help at all it is probably unlikely that more will help. best thing to do is treat the nausea, go to vestibular rehab with physical therapy, and call the prescribing doctor if the medications aren't working so that you can make treatment decisions together. hope this helps
Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Prasad
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Answered by
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Dr. Richard Jackson

Neurologist

Practicing since :2010

Answered : 120 Questions

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What Is The Cause And Treatment For Vestibular Neuronitis?

Brief Answer: All of this is consistent with neuronitis Detailed Answer: the syndrome of vestibular neuronitis is a monophasic disease process that is usually severe for 1 week with rotational vertigo, nausea, vomiting, and difficulty walking. by the end of the week it the symptoms are usually less severe but persistent or intermittent in your case. it mainly depends on how fast your brain can become accustomed to the new situation. after the acute phase the symptoms generally last for another 2-3 months before completely resolving and then there can be exacerbations which are less severe but still disabling. the medicines don't work that well except to make you sleepy but the anti nausea ones usually help the most. headaches are common afterwards because of the muscle tightness in the neck and shoulders from the stress. stretching, physical therapy, therapeutic massage , and Tylenol/ibuprofen/alleve/exedrin alone or in combination can probably abort the headaches. they should be taken at symptom onset, not when the pain is severe. use each agent only as directed and no more than three times per week to avoid rebound headaches. the brain has no feeling so nothing was missed on the ct scan. there are other causes of serious headaches that will not show up on ct scans but none of them are headaches which come after vertigo. hope this helps