Vestibular Migraine: Tilt to the Right, Tilt to the Left

Vestibular migraine is characterized by symptoms of vertigo, and sometimes other types of dizziness (see Vestibular Migraine: What’s New). But vertigo isn’t just one thing – it can be triggered in different ways. Some people just suddenly feel like the room is spinning around them, for no apparent reason. Other people feel a spiralling sensation with head movement, or when they sit up. Or with head movement.

A recent study investigated just how many vestibular migraine patients experience vertigo. Many patients do indeed experience vertigo when their head is tilted, not so much when it’s vertical.

The strange thing is that, in the study, patients were more likely to experience vertigo when their head was tilted to the right (the opposite of the dog!).

If vertigo is one of your common migraine symptoms, what’s your experience? It it different depending on which way you tilt your head?

Researchers want to investigate more to find out why the difference.

We do know that treating migraine in general, and also “vestibular rehabilitation“, can help with this migraine symptom. If, however, the vertigo tends to hang on for longer periods of time (instead of being directly connected with your migraine attacks), you might want to investigate benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV).

Study abstract: Errors of Upright Perception in Patients with Vestibular Migraine