Dizziness

• Given a patient with “dizziness”, conduct a history so as to distinguish true vertigo from other types of dizziness.
• Identify which medications are likely causes of dizziness.
• Conduct a relevant physical exam so as to rule out serious causes of dizziness, including assessment of orthostatic blood pressure, cerebellar & cranial nerve function, and cardiac exam.
• Identify patients with BPPV and be able to demonstrate the Epley maneuver for these patients.
• Understand the differential diagnosis for central and peripheral causes of vertigo

Core Resources

Dizziness Clinical Card

Munro JS, Keegan DA. Dizziness. Canadian Family Medicine Clinical Card. 2010. Available at: https://sites.google.com/site/sharcfm/

Dizziness Vertigo One-Page Primer

Mitchell Z, Ilk L. Dizziness Vertigo One-Page Primer.  DFCM Open.  2014.  Available at: https://dfcmopen.com.  Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs CC BY-NC-ND

Dizziness - A Diagnostic Approach

Post RE, Dickerson LM. Dizziness: A diagnostic approach. Am Fam Physician. 2010;82(4):361-8, 369. doi: d8421 [pii].

Initial Evaluation of Vertigo

Labuguen RH. Initial evaluation of vertigo. Am Fam Physician. 2006;73(2):244-251.