All in all, as anyone who has ever suffered the misery of motion sickness will tell you, it is no bundle of laughs and something that you definitely want to get over as quickly and effectively as possible.
The good news is that for most people, airsickness is not a serious condition whilst it is one that is likely to cease affecting you once the motion that causes it ceases as well. However, that is not always true, as some people do continue to suffer motion sickness symptoms for several hours or perhaps even a few days after the situation which originally induced their sickness has ceased.
Medicinal treatments for airsickness
The first thing to say is that most experts believe that it is probably impossible to completely remove the possibility of suffering airsickness 100% totally without surgically modifying the inner ear (which has proved to be an effective motion sickness cure in monkeys).
Assuming however that most people would not want to go to such radical lengths to get rid of a motion sickness problem, it is likely that you will look elsewhere for suitable airsickness treatments, knowing that they will not always work in every situation.
There are quite a few over-the-counter medical treatments for air sickness almost all of which should be taken or used at least a few hours before flying.
Some of these are antihistamines such as meclizine (Bonine, Antivert and Postafen being three very common brands), diphenhydramine (Benadryl or Dimedrol outside the USA and Canada) and belladonna in the form of scopolamine.
Side effects of drugs for airsickness
Looking at each of these drugs in turn, they all have some potential adverse side-effects of which you should be aware.
Meclizine is a known antiemetic (anti-nausea) and antispasmodic (it prevents muscle spasms) medicine that can be bought over-the-counter in most pharmacies and drugstores.
It is believed that meclizine helps to reduce the likely susceptibility to nausea and vomiting by reducing activity in the part of the brain which controls nausea. It also helps prevent all forms of motion sickness by slowing down the activity of the neurons in the vestibular area of the brain as well.
The main side effect of taking this drug is that it generally causes drowsiness, which whilst it might not be a bad thing while you are flying can be a problem if you land and need to drive.
Furthermore, it can sometimes cause the very nausea that it is supposed to prevent whilst also leading to an unnaturally dry mouth, blurred vision, constipation and excess water retention. In a very small minority of cases, meclizine has also be seen to be at least partially responsible for hypotension (low blood pressure) and heart palpitations.
Benadryl is used as an antihistamine, antiemetic, hypnotic and sedative drug. This drug is in fact one of the oldest known antihistamines, having been discovered in 1943, but it is still readily used and prescribed (although it can be bought over the counter) in many countries of the world.
Once again, the most common side-effect of taking diphenhydramine is profound rowdiness, sometimes accompanied by ataxia, dry throat and mouth, flushed skin, irregular or rapid heartbeat, blurred vision, short-term memory loss and constipation.
Furthermore, due to its potential for an inter-reaction with other medications, using Benadryl when you are taking other drugs could have potentially harmful or hazardous side-effects.
A significant overdose of diphenhydramine could potentially lead to a heart attack, coma and death too, so despite its apparently benign nature, this is not a drug to toy with.
If this is the case with diphenhydramine, the same is even more true of scopolamine which given that it is related to belladonna should be no surprise. Scopolomine is a drug that has valid medical uses only in extremely tiny doses, as an overdose can cause delusions, deliriums, stupor and death!
It is an anticholinergic drug that prevents motion sickness by blocking the neurotransmitter acetylcholine in both the peripheral and central nervous system. As suggested previously, it is believed that motion sickness is caused by some form of upset balance between various different neurotransmitters and using scopolamine is believed to redress the balance, thereby reducing the susceptibility to airsickness.
Although this is a drug that can be taken orally, it is most commonly used in the form of an infused patch that will usually contain as little as 330 μg (micrograms) of the drug. This is affixed to the skin – usually behind the ear – around 3-4 hours before flying so that the drug can be released by the patch to be gradually absorbed through the skin.
As suggested, in an overdose situation, scopolamine can be very dangerous indeed, but as it is almost impossible to overdose if you are using transdermal patches (which is the most common form of usage in the West), this is not likely to be a problem for most people.
However, because of its anticholinergic qualities, scopolamine can cause a dry mouth, throat and nose or in more severe cases, impaired vision, sensitivity to light, constipation, problems urinating and rapid heartbeat or tachycardia.
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