Visually induced dizziness often occurs in vestibular migraine (Best et al., 2009; Chari et al., 2021; Dieterich et al., 2016; Formeister et al., 2018; Kim et al., 2023). Vestibular migraine is a type of migraine characterised by intense episodes of dizziness or vertigo, with or without a co-occurring headache. It affects around 2.7% of adults and is one of the most common forms of episodic dizziness (Formeister et al., 2018). The demographics of vestibular migraine in the population mirrors that of PPPD with roughly 2:1 female-to-male ratio and an average age of late-middle age (~53 years old (Formeister et al., 2018)). Visually induced dizziness is common in people with vestibular migraine both during attacks and interictally (Beh et al., 2019). A meta-analysis on vestibular migraine treatment found that pharmacological interventions and vestibular rehabilitation can be effective at lowering symptoms (Byun et al., 2021). For example, Aydin et al. (2020) compared vestibular rehabilitation to pharmacological treatment and a third group of both, finding when vestibular rehabilitation was included as treatment vertigo attack severity and duration decreased, compared to pharmacological treatment alone. The exercises in Aydin et al. (2020) utilised habituation and other forms of visual desensitisation and were performed in the home. Other research has also found that vestibular rehabilitation reduces the mean monthly migraine attacks and subjective dizziness intensity (Lee et al., 2015). Interestingly, Lee et al. (2015) utilised a rehabilitation paradigm first described in Chen et al. (2012), whereby participants were playing the Nintendo Wii (Jones & Thiruvathukal, 2012). Both Lee et al. (2015) and Chen et al. (2012) provide some evidence for the gamification of the rehabilitation of visually induced dizziness.
Additional Resources
Vestibular Migraine & Vertigo – Symptoms, Causes & Treatments
Vestibular Migraine – Vestibular Disorders Association
What is Vestibular Migraine? | Ménière’s Society
References
Aydin, İ., Gökçay, F., Karapolat, H., Eraslan, S., Bilgen, C., Kirazli, T., Tanıgör, G., Köse, T., & Çelebisoy, N. (2020). Effects of vestibular rehabilitation and pharmacological therapy in patients with vestibular migraine. Neurological Sciences and Neurophysiology, 37(3), 110-117.
Beh, S. C., Masrour, S., Smith, S. V., & Friedman, D. I. (2019). The spectrum of vestibular migraine: clinical features, triggers, and examination findings. Headache: The Journal of Head and Face Pain, 59(5), 727-740.
Best, C., Eckhardt-Henn, A., Tschan, R., & Dieterich, M. (2009). Psychiatric morbidity and comorbidity in different vestibular vertigo syndromes: Results of a prospective longitudinal study over one year. Journal of Neurology 256(1) (pp 58-65), 2009 Date of Publication: January 2009, 256(1), 58-65. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00415-009-0038-8
Byun, Y. J., Levy, D. A., Nguyen, S. A., Brennan, E., & Rizk, H. G. (2021). Treatment of vestibular migraine: a systematic review and meta‐analysis. The Laryngoscope, 131(1), 186-194.
Chari, D. A., Liu, Y.-H., Chung, J. J., & Rauch, S. D. (2021). Subjective cognitive symptoms and dizziness handicap inventory (DHI) performance in patients with vestibular migraine and Menière’s disease. Otology & Neurotology, 42(6), 883-889.
Chen, P.-Y., Hsieh, W.-L., Wei, S.-H., & Kao, C.-L. (2012). Interactive wiimote gaze stabilization exercise training system for patients with vestibular hypofunction. Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation, 9, 1-10.
Dieterich, M., Obermann, M., & Celebisoy, N. (2016). Vestibular migraine: the most frequent entity of episodic vertigo. Journal of neurology, 263, 82-89.
Formeister, E. J., Rizk, H. G., Kohn, M. A., & Sharon, J. D. (2018). The epidemiology of vestibular migraine: a population-based survey study. Otology & Neurotology, 39(8), 1037-1044.
Jones, S. E., & Thiruvathukal, G. K. (2012). Codename revolution: the Nintendo Wii platform. MIT Press.
Kim, T. S., Lee, W. H., & Heo, Y. (2023). Prevalence and Contributing Factors of Anxiety and Depression in Patients with Vestibular Migraine. Ear, Nose & Throat Journal. https://doi.org/10.1177/01455613231181219
Lee, Y.-Y., Yang, Y.-P., Huang, P.-I., Li, W.-C., Huang, M.-C., Kao, C.-L., Chen, Y.-J., & Chen, M.-T. (2015). Exercise suppresses COX-2 pro-inflammatory pathway in vestibular migraine. Brain research bulletin, 116, 98-105.