What Is Vertigo a Symptom For?

Dizziness may cause a person to feel lightheaded or lose balance. Vertigo, on the other hand, makes a person feel as if the room is spinning.

Factors

• Vertigo can be caused by disorders of body parts that are involved in maintaining balance, such as the inner ear, brain stem and cerebellum, or nerve tracts in the brain.

Inner Ear Disorders

• The most-common cause of vertigo is motion sickness, an inner ear disorder. Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, caused by abnormal calcium buildup in the inner ear canal, is common in older people. Other inner ear-related causes are infection, Paget's disease, tumors or nerve inflammation.

Brain Disorders

• Vertigo can be caused by decreased blood flow through arteries to the brain stem, cerebellum and back of the brain. Temporary symptoms of this type are known as transient ischemic attack. If permanent damage results, a stroke is diagnosed.

Drug-Induced Vertigo

• Vertigo can be a side effect of drugs, including some antibiotics, aspirin, chemotherapy drug cisplatin, the sedative phenobarbital, the anti-convulsant phenytoin, the antipsychotic chlorpromazine and diuretics (including furosemide.)

Other Causes

• Vertigo can be caused by multiple sclerosis, skull fractures, head injuries, seizures, increased brain pressure or excessive alcohol consumption.