Is Youtube a Prescription for Vertigo? University of Michigan Study

Watching videos on YouTube may be a new way to show the treatment for a common cause of vertigo, which often goes untreated by physicians, according to a study published in the July 24, 2012, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) is an inner ear disorder that is a common cause of dizziness. “This type of vertigo can be treated easily and quickly with a simple maneuver called the Epley maneuver, but too often the maneuver isn’t used, and people are told to ‘wait it out’ or given drugs,” said study author Kevin A. Kerber, MD, of the University of Michigan Health System in Ann Arbor and a member of the American Academy of Neurology. “We found that accurate video demonstrations of the maneuver that health care providers and people with vertigo can use are readily available on YouTube.”

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