Dizziness

The word dizziness is commonly used to designate a whole variety of sensations, from a vague sense of weakness to a definite feeling of spinning. Like pain, dizziness is a purely subjective experience. However, although the word pain may be used to describe different sensations by different individuals, the meaning of the word dizziness is even more variable. In general usage, the words dizziness and vertigo are often used interchangeably, but technically, as medical terms in health science, these two conditions are quite different. In vertigo, a false sensation of movement is always present. In dizziness, unlike vertigo, there is no universally accepted definition of the quality of the sensation. Instead, the term may indicate a feeling of weakness, a near loss of consciousness, or general anxiety. Dizziness, or light-headedness, is sometimes associated with fainting (also called syncope), but may occur even when the person complaining of it shows no decrease in alertness.

Cause/etiology

The feeling of dizziness is prompted by certain circumstances, such as extreme fatigue or hunger. Dizziness is also commonly felt in abnormal conditions like poor blood perfusion to the brain because of low blood pressure or arrhythmia, and when blood levels of carbon dioxide are driven down by prolonged hyperventilation. Despite the fact that there are situations in which the presence of dizziness is predictable, it remains a misunderstood condition in the health sciences that is sometimes interpreted as an arbitrary complaint by a patient who has no physical illness.

When dizziness persists without evidence of a clear abnormality in neurological responses, breathing, or blood circulation, the symptom is often ascribed to a psychiatric condition or dismissed as a psychosomatic complaint. This may partly be due to the difference between what the lay person complaining of a feeling of dizziness means by the word, and the more specific meaning that the word has in Medicine and the health sciences.

Cultural aspects of dizziness

A feeling of dizziness may be feared, discounted or even welcomed depending on the identity and cultural background of the person experiencing it. In the 19th Century, western girls and women who easily became "faint" were often admired as showing refinement and gentility. On the other hand, admission of feeling faint or dizzy has long been denigrated as showing weakness and can be particularly alarming to atheletes and soldiers. Because of the underlying values ascribed to a person experiencing the sensation of dizziness in different cultures, a person may be more or less likely to admit to feeling this sensation.

Chronic non-specific dizziness

For patients experiencing chronic dizziness, without vertigo or evidence of balance problems, the condition is often outside of the ability of the health sciences to remedy in routine care. Dizziness without any component of vertigo is technically called "nonspecific dizziness". The medical view of nonspecific dizziness as a condition tends to be skeptical. For example the definition of dizziness in the Steadman's Medical Dictionary is as follows: Imprecise term commonly used by patients in an attempt to describe various symptoms such as faintness, vertigo, disequilibrium, or unsteadiness. Etymology: A. S. [dyzig,] foolish.

Medical evaluation of the dizzy patient

There are several important findings in the description of dizziness in addition to the quality of the dizziness. Over-reliance on the quality of the dizziness may lead diagnostic errors.