History taking in dizziness. The most important diagnostic step.

When faced with a complaint of dizziness, the primary care physician may be tempted to assume that the cause is inner ear dysfunction and that the patient needs to be referred to an otologist. According to Dr Hybels, however, most dizzy patients do not have an ear problem and a carefully executed history is likely to pinpoint the correct diagnosis. The following article delineates the fine points of history taking and discusses some of the most common causes of dizziness.