Trauma

Victims of head injuries may present with dizziness. It may be anywhere from true vertigo to a sense of dizziness or imbalance. Depending on the mechanism of the head injury, the dizziness may be more or less severe. Victims of mild traumatic brain injury often have dizziness as their only complaint.

Research is currently underway to help define the mechanism. Soldiers who have been injured by IEDs frequently will have dizziness. Testing of individuals with TBI typically shows relatively normal results, but often with an uncompensated high frequency loss of balance function identified on rotational chair testing. Treatment is limited to vestibular physical therapy, which seems to be effective.