Vertigo & Concussion Treatments
What is Vertigo?
Vertigo is the sensation of spinning or dizziness. It is often accompanied by nausea, motion sickness, headaches or ringing in your ears, along with a general sense of being unwell.
It may range in severity from being barely noticeable to impacting on everyday tasks like walking or driving.
It’s actually quite common. 50% of people will suffer from vertigo at some point in their lives. Your risk of getting vertigo increases as you age
The most common causes of vertigo are idiopathic (occurs spontaneously for no known reason), due to a neck injury, whiplash, concussion or a viral infection. Rarer causes can be due to the side effects from medication or due to brain or heart disease.
What Is Concussion?
Concussion is a type of traumatic brain injury.
It can be caused by a direct bang to your head, for example, a clash of heads when playing soccer.
It can also be caused by an impact to your body that causes your head and brain to move rapidly back and forth. Examples of this include the whiplash effect in a car crash or a very strong tackle to the body in contact sports. You do not have to lose consciousness to get concussion.
Symptoms of concussion can include dizziness, headache, nausea, vomiting, feeling hazy or foggy with poor concentration, confusion or memory problems. It can also cause low mood.
Concussion symptoms generally first come on in the first 7-10 days, go away within 3 months but sometimes can persistent. When this occurs it is called caused post concussion syndrome.
Vestibular & Concussion Rehabilitation
Vertigo, concussion and whiplash symptoms can very much overlap.
Our specially trained chartered physiotherapists first test what is causing your symptoms, then decide on an approach to ease your symptoms.
If you have vertigo, for example due to Benign Paroxomal Positional Vertigo, this may involve a vestibular rehabilitation treatment that gives instant relief in 90% of cases.
Importance Of Concussion Rehabilitation
Rehabilitation from concussion can take time.
For field athletes, it’s important to under go a full screening beyond the traditional SCAT 5 screen for return to play.
Following concussion, even once feeling well, your balance, ability to cut, turn at pace and visually track the ball/ opponent may be compromised.
After concussion, some athletes are also at increased risk of further concussions and lower limb injuries such as knee and ankle injuries.
Concussion rehabilitation in physiotherapy focuses on helping you return to your previous level of sport and decrease your risk of future injury.
What To Expect
First, your therapist does a series of tests to find out what is causing your symptoms. This determines the best treatment plan for you.
Your rehabilitation may combine hands-on treatment techniques, with movement retraining, balance retraining & occulo-motor retraining.
Importantly it also gives you the tools to help your condition at home. A tailor made exercise-based program designed by vestibular & concussion physiotherapist is key to long lasting results.
No two exercise treatment plans are exactly alike and your program is developed based on the type of symptoms you have and how they effect your life.
How Long Does It Take To Work?
Every case is different.
On average, 1-2 treatments per week for 6-8 weeks give the best results.
Some cases require 1-2 treatments while more complete persistent cases may take 6-12 months.
