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Pharmacological Treatment of Motion Sickness

  • Thomas G. DobieEmail author
Chapter
First Online:
Part of the Springer Series on Naval Architecture, Marine Engineering, Shipbuilding and Shipping book series (NAMESS, volume 6)

Abstract

Practically everything has been tried at one time or another to treat motion sickness. There are a number of medications that are quite effective, although most have some unwanted side effects and some adversely affect performance. Scopolamine and promethazine are still considered to be the most effective anti-motion sickness medications. Perhaps the most disturbing feature of the anti-motion sickness drug story is that nothing new and effective has appeared in the last forty years or so. Recently, drugs that have effective anti-emetic properties in certain clinical settings have not been found to be effective in a motion environment. If you are treating passengers, make your choice of medication according to circumstances such as duration and severity of exposure and individual idiosyncrasies. When dealing with operators of potentially hazardous equipment or those performing certain skilled tasks, the choice is more difficult and it may be better to avoid drugs all together.

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© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.National Biodynamics Laboratory, College of EngineeringUniversity of New OrleansNew OrleansUSA

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