Posted by JohnL on November 19, 2000, at 7:18:39
In reply to Motion Sickness treatment for Anxiety Disorders?, posted by Didier on November 18, 2000, at 21:14:04
Didier,
I went to www.mentalhealth.com to do a little research on your situation, since your case sparked my curiosity. I am very sorry for the troubles you are having.Basically what I gathered was that there is considerable overlap between motion sickness and anxiety. It also became apparent to me that this topic is way over the heads of GPs. You might want to look for an opthamologist (nose, ear, and throat specialist) to identify or rule out any physical causes.
There were many drugs used to treat conditions like yours. In the benzo group, Diazepam was the best. Did you try that one? Another is Meclizine, an antihistimine. Dramamine was also mentioned, though I was surprised to see that people can get addicted to it. Piracetam, Nicergoline, serotonin antidepressants, and many other drugs were mentioned.
Once physical causes have been ruled out, you'll basically be in the same boat as the rest of us. That is, you'll just have to sample different drugs and see what happens. So time invested into weeding out and choosing a specialist who will cooperate with you in sampling a variety of medicines may be time well spent. You need to be able to tell a doctor you desire to sample a variety of different medicines, even if some have no clinical justification, and that you are willing to deal with the inconvenience and the trouble. Most likely when you discover a drug that is very helpful, it will work quickly. The exception would be serotonin antidepressants, which generally take a long time.
Generally it seemed that your symptoms are possibly related to the histamine, acetylcholine, or noradrenaline chemistries. So how benzos and SSRIs would work, I have no clue. But apparently they can. Though I didn't read it anywhere, I would almost guess that a small dose antipsychotic like Zyprexa or Risperdal could be sampled, since they have multiple actions in the chemistries that might be involved.
If you want to learn more, go to www.mentalhealth.com. Follow the prompts for research, and medication research. You'll get to a list of drugs. Choose one, any one, and select 'all topics' and following the prompts. You will get to a page(s) that has summaries of clinical studies on that drug. Now that you have arrived at the desired destination, go to the box at the top of the page and erase the drug's name. Now type in whatever you want to do research on. You can use AND or OR to fine tune your search. For example, I typed in 'motion sickness AND anxiety', or 'vertigo AND anxiety', or Meniere's disease, or Meclizine, or Dramamine, or whatever you want.
I think you may require a specialist, probably someone who is an expert on the inner ear, has some experience with psychiatric drugs, and who is willing to cooperate with you sampling different medicines. In the meantime, you could do some research and become real familiar with your condition. You'll have a better idea of what your options are, and which might seem more attractive. But according to what I read, you may already be on the right track in thinking about Dramamine. Of course, it will cause drowsiness, and you can develop a tolerance and addiction to it. Here again, the involvement of a specialist is probably a good idea.
John
poster:JohnL
thread:49045
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20001115/msgs/49059.html