ELIMINATION OR REDUCTION OF MOTION SICKNESS 



385 



adaptation to a swing among a group of men 

 grounded because of persistent airsickness 

 (25). There was little evidence of adapta- 

 tion in this group. Two men that did show 

 some adaptation during daily swinging were 

 again motion sick on the swing after several 

 weeks of rest. These findings corroborate 

 the anecdotal evidence that naval personnel 

 susceptible to seasickness must readapt on 

 each cruise, i.e., regain their "sea legs" on 

 each cruise. 



Drugs 



Administration of motion-sickness-preven- 

 tive drugs to active personnel is a more 

 complex problem than similar medication 

 for passengers. Undesirable side effects of 

 drugs such as possible interference with vi- 

 sion, sleepiness, or dryness of the throat, 

 are of greater importance in men expected 

 to function at peak psychomotor efficiency 

 than in passengers who might be given heavy 

 sedation. Despite rigorous criteria with re- 

 spect to medication of active personnel, 

 several remedies have been found to be rel- 

 atively free from side effects that would 

 preclude their use. No consistent physio- 

 logical rationale for drug control can as yet 

 be advanced. The literature on the use of 

 drugs in motion sickness is voluminous, 

 larger perhaps than all other aspects of mo- 

 tion sickness combined. The accomplish- 

 ments have not been commensurate with 

 the attention devoted to drugs, and many 

 of the early reports are merely anecdotal 

 accounts with neither experimental controls 

 nor critical analysis of results. 



Tyler's report (111) of the effects of nine 

 different drug combinations contains most 

 of the relevant information on the effective- 

 ness of drugs in preventing motion sickness. 

 In this work, the drug dosages were deter- 

 mined by the amount of a drug that could 

 be given without interfering with the effi- 

 ciency of the men. Another important fea- 

 ture of these studies was the use of both a 

 non-medicated control group and a lactose 

 (placebo) control group. Sixty experiments 

 were conducted on over 15,000 unselected 



young men engaged in amphibious training 

 operations off the California coast. Hyo- 

 scine alone or in combination with other 

 drugs was found to be effective in preventing 

 motion sickness. An average of 60 percent 

 protection was afforded by hyoscine or hyo- 

 scine combinations when the control rates 

 were as high as 52 percent and half of these 

 had severe symptoms. Barbiturates were 

 less effective than hyoscine when the general 

 incidence of motion sickness was high. In 

 these studies, the medications were given 

 one to three hours before embarking. In 

 situations where the medication could not 

 be given until evidence of motion sickness 

 was already present, it is likely that the 

 benefit would be less because of the inter- 

 ference with absorption of the drugs. 



Hyoscine appears to be the favored drug 

 in control of motion sickness, and when 

 given orally (0.6 mg.) about one hour before 

 exposure to motion, can significantly reduce 

 the incidence of motion sickness (51, 103, 

 lll).i 



Indoctrination 



Acquainting all personnel with the known 

 facts about motion sickness may help to 

 minimize the problem, particularly by dis- 

 pelling some of the attitude of expectancy 

 surrounding the first cruise aboard ship. 

 While it is difficult to prevent the experi- 

 enced hands from exploiting the ignorance 

 of the greenhorn, the possession of the facts 

 of motion sicloiess by the neophyte may 

 avoid useless anxiety and being made the 

 butt of pranks designed to aid the appear- 

 ance of motion siclcness rather than prevent 

 it. It is well known that airsickness may 

 be easily produced on first flights by maneu- 

 vers; the simple expedient of requiring the 

 pilot rather than the student to clean up 



^ Since this chapter was written, a new remedy 

 (Dramamine) has been reported {Science, 1949, 109, 

 359-360). The initial studies appear to place the 

 drug within the range of effectiveness of the bet- 

 ter motion-sickness remedies (111), and further 

 studies of its relative effectiveness are indicated, 

 as well as investigations of undesirable side-effects 

 of the drug. 



