-IBIS-1.5.0-
tx
nervous system
motion sickness
diagnoses
definition and etiology
definition: A disorder caused by the movement involved in traveling, mainly causing nausea and vomiting.
etiology: The common subtypes are sea, air, train, and car sickness. This disorder is notable by its marked individuality of susceptibility to symptoms. Some people never experience motion sickness and in others, very minor movement may initiate problems.
Physiologically, significant motion stimulation to the vestibular apparatus is the main cause. For nausea and vomiting to occur, both the 8th cranial nerve and the cerebellar tracts must be functioning. often several factors are involved with the creation of motion sickness: poor ventilation (smoky atmosphere, crowded environment); visual stimuli (a moving horizon, reading a book while moving); and mental/emotional concerns (anxiety about traveling or being confined). It is easier to prevent the illness than to treat it.
signs and symptoms
signs and symptoms:
Most patients present with a history of nausea and vomiting in typical traveling situations.
Other associated symptoms may be: yawning; pallor; marked cold sweating; fatigue; dizziness; hyperventilation; headache; inability to concentrate; weakness.
lab findings:
Generally not helpful unless the patient was ill before travelling.
course and prognosis
Many children will outgrow their motion sickness, or at least have its severity curtailed. Prolonged exposure to offending stimuli may lead to accommodation and adaptation, causing symptoms to cease. However, once the repeated exposure ends, if the patient has a brief respite and then begins to travel again, symptoms may be just as severe as before. Or if a person acclimated to one level of travel (general airplane motion) is then exposed to worse motion (moderate turbulence) then symptoms may be elicited in their fullness.
In patients who are already ill with some other disease, serious complications (such as arterial hypotension, inanition, depression, and dehydration) may result.
Conventional treatment is primarily preventive: certain drugs (meclizine, cyclizine, phenobarbitol e.g.) can be given prophylactically to suppress nausea and vomiting.
differential diagnosis
other metabolic and infectious causes of nausea and vomiting
footnotes