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Seasick Remedies
Scopolamine and Scopace
Among offshore sailors--those who will be out in the ocean for more than a few hours--Scopolamine is probably the most widely used of all the various medications. Scopolamine is a prescription drug sold under the name Transderm Scop and is administered via a patch placed behind the ear. It is advertised as being effective for three days and there are usually no serious side effects. However, when side effects do occur, they can be severe; several readers wrote to say that they had experienced hallucinations and/or dizziness. Note that the company that makes Scopolamine took it off the market in the mid-1990s to remedy some quality control problems with dosage levels. The problems below were all experienced with the newer version of Scopolamine.
Scopace is a tablet version of Scopolamine. Unlike the patch, which is only available in a fixed (1.5mg) dosage, Scopace can be adjusted for each person's weight and needs. According to a web site promoting Scopace, a study conducted for NASA found that the tablets are twice as effective as the patch in preventing motion sickness.
***********
As a lifelong
member of the dreaded seasickness club, I've gotten sick on all manner
of vessels—from tiny runabouts to large ferries.
I'd always resigned myself to life as a landlubber, despite my love of
the water, until my boyfriend (now husband) spoke of his plans to own
a sailboat and go cruising. How exiting! How adventurous! How awful.
Was there any hope that his dreams could become our dreams? The answer
was most definitely "yes."
Those who get seasick will try just about anything to combat the queasiness and
vomiting. I popped over-the-counter pills and was left groggy and cotton-mouthed…and
still seasick. The scopolamine patch wasn't a winner either, as it left me, a
petite woman, feeling nauseated even before I stepped foot on the boat. I bought
the Relief Band (uncomfortable and bulky), tried biofeedback, watched the horizon
and didn't go below, but nothing cured me of that nasty mal de mer.
Nothing, that is, until I found Scopace. Scopace is scopolamine in a pill rather
than a patch. The pill form allows the dosage to be customized for the individual
and for the situation. I don't experience any side effects (other than joy),
and I don't have to wear a sticky patch behind my ear either. Scopace is simply
fantastic—I can't praise it highly enough.
So dreams do come true! My husband and I bought a Hans Christian 33 sailboat
and take it out every chance we get—and I haven't felt seasick once. I
urge everyone who can identify with feeling sick at sea (or on planes or cars
or amusement park rides) to give Scopace a try. Aside from sitting under a palm
tree, this is the ultimate cure!
Sincerely,
Nicole Maraschky
s/v Bella Star
Seattle, Washington
Contact info for Scopace:
www.motionsickness.net
Hope Pharmaceuticals
8260 East Gelding Drive #104, Scottsdale, AZ 85260
Phone: (800) 755-9595
***********
My seasickness
began later in my life. Perhaps it is associated
with hormone changes. A friend found the Relief to be his solution
to seasickness. It did not work for me. Dramamine,
merazine and meclazine work for me and also Sturgeon, but it is
not available in the U.S. Scaplomine was used by another
friend on a passgae and she reported having extra crew in the cockpit
with her. Yes, hallucinations can occur.
Sue Schadt
s/v Nice 'n' Easy
***********
It was
last year that I had hallucinations using the Scapalomine patch. I
purchased them the fall before. Yes there were people in the cockpit
with me and voices in the distance. The people seemed as real
as can be! It could have been a very dangerous situation. Have
no other allergies that I know of!
Sally Pinches
S/V It's About Time
Montoursville, Pennsylvania
***********
I
was to be crew on a 31' sailboat in the Swiftsure Race from Victoria,
BC. I had never participated in a race with big waves and swell so
I prepared by buying Scopalomine patches. The remainder of the crew
and captain all used the same medicated patches. At dinner the night
before the race, we all placed our patches behind ears and later went
to bed. When I arose for a water closet visit in the night, I fell
down upon arising. However, I got the job done and back to bed without
further ado. However, my roommate and I arose several hours later and
walked to a nearby restaurant for breakfast. My passage down the street
was accompanied by stares and people clearing the way as I wove from
side to side down the street. At breakfast, I found that no one else
was having these problems, so it appeared to me that I simply did not
tolerate the side effects of scopalomine and took the patch off at
0730. By race start time at 0930, I was completely back to my normal
non-staggering self. As it turned out, the race was a "drifter" and
very little wave or swell action was encountered and I did not get
seasick.
Mel Chandler, MD
Cal 29
Edmonds, Washington
***********
I am an
avid sailor and diver who has suffered from motion sickness my entire
life and has fed many fish.
However, thanks to different types of "boat drugs" on the market
- Meclazine and Scopolamine - I almost always enjoy these activities
with no problem. While meclazine is available via prescription and OTC,
I use only OTC. The prescription version is way too strong. It puts me
to sleep, and keeps me there.
However, there have been times when I've forgotten to take my boat drug,
or the experience was so incredibly difficult (going down below in a
hot sailboat to pull in a spinnaker while traveling through large 8+
ft. waves, or standing on a rolling boat in 90 degrees carrying 50 lbs.
of dive gear on my back) that the drug just didn't work.
One of the biggest problem with boat drugs however, is they tend to make
you very drowsy and/or thirsty.
My cure for that is to cut everything in half: cut the circle patch of
scopolamine in half or cut the Meclazine tablet in half. They both still
works.
However, if you are planning to be on the water for several days at a
time (7 days or more), or are participating in a race, you may want to
take the full dose, BUT, do it the night before so that the drowsiness
is much less of a factor.
And, if you do find yourself becoming seasick - with or without boat
drug assistance - the best thing to do is to eat something salty - crackers,
pretzels, etc. - which will cause the stomach to calm down.
Julie Phillips-Turner
Queenstown, Maryland
***********
I tried just a half patch of Scopolamine on a cruise [about 10 years ago] to the Yucatan once and I was so miserable with severe dry mouth that I would have gladly traded for the actual seasickness. I will never take it again. My brother-in-law tried the other half patch and had blurred vision for two days! I have since used Bonine and it has worked fine with no adverse side effects.
Jerry Dawson
Arkansas Electric Boat Company
Hot Springs Village, Arkansas
***********
I've been sailing since '66, and have enjoyed cruises on various sizes of cruise ships (from 50 to 2000 passengers), and enjoyed bareboat charter cruising many times.
I'd like
to share my methodology for effectively coping with my severe tendency
to get seasick. After many different trials of drugs
and gadgets, I have found that taking Meclizine (Bonine) at least 18
hours before motion begins is KEY! Thereafter, I take 1/2 of a 25
mg
Meclizine tablet every morning and evening until reaching shore. The
directions on most pills for seasickness prevention speak of 2 - 4
hours before exposure. This simply is not enough time for the drug
to get fully distributed in your body. This works so well, that I
remained "under control" during a flight in a twin-engine DASH
8
flying through a severe frontal passage with serious-looking
thunderheads all around us. My wife who is motion sickness-resistant,
didn't use my Meclizine, got very ill on that flight.
Another
item of interest is that the Scopolamine patch, for a few (unlucky)
individuals, can CAUSE one to suffer seasickness symptoms.
Back in the early '90s, I spent 3-1/2 days bringing a 25-foot
sailboat from New London, CT to Chelsea, NY. During that time I wore
a Scopolamine patch with no negative results. Immediately after this,
we flew to the BVI to begin a week of bareboat sailing. At this
point, I was on my second patch (I get airsick too). When we left the
dock, I began to feel that familiar unease, and thinking the patch
had gone flat, put another one on. Unfortunately, the nausea did not
recede, and the only time I felt comfortable was when I was
snorkeling, or sleeping. Fighting the nausea finally became too much,
and we aborted our vacation trip. The nausea, and some vertigo,
persisted even after I arrived home, and my wife called Ciba-Geigy,
the manufacturer of the Scop Transdermic patch. The authority there
told her that I was one in 100,000 that develops this side-effect
from this drug. I was told to get on a tranquilizer, and drink lots
of water. It took about 10 days to fully rid myself of the
side-effects' symptoms, and never considered using the patch again.
BTW: I believe the problems related to the patch's temporary withdrawal was with too great a variance in the dosage being passed through the patch membrane to the skin. I don't think my problem was related to Ciba-Geigy's manufacturing problem.
Herm
Schiller
New
Bern, North Carolina
***********
We were cruising California's Channel Islands, the sea got a bit steep and my doctor friend from New York began to feel "nawshious," (that's how they pronounce it in the Big Apple.) After she "regurgited, an emesis of 150 ccs of California calimari," she said she was going below to lie down for a while. I advised her to stay on deck where she could see the horizon and away from the tinge of diesel. She ignored my advice and went below and lay down.
A few minutes
later she was back in the cockpit, hale and hearty. What
the doctor ordered wasn't what the skipper ordered but it sure worked
for her !
We were getting ready to leave the dock in San Diego for a SCUBA diving
trip to the Sea of Cortez in Rock's Downeast 38'. Beth handed Rock
a scopalamine patch and asked if anyone else wanted one. Joe, who
was the XO on the carrier "America," reached up saying, "I'm
not too used to being on little ships like this, I'll take one."
I had never known the need to use the patch but, since I hadn't been
to sea for a couple of months, I thought I'd try one so I too reached
up. The fourth crew, Steve, said, "I've raced on too many
boats to need a sissy patch."
Three days later we ran out of wind just north of Cabo so we put in there. The
first thing we did was put Steve off; he had been seasick all the way
down. When we were checking our stores Joe and I both sheepishly
said we thought we should get some more sodas for we had both drank
more than our share. Rock smiled and said, "There's two more
cases under the starboard settee."
The patch had kept Rock, who was very susceptible to seasickness,
well for 750 miles of open sea. Joe and I, who thought we weren't
susceptible, suffered only a little dry mouth. The three of us
had a great two weeks of diving and didn't suffer Steve anymore.
Harmon
Heed
s/v
TRVTH
Sarasota,
Florida
***********
You
asked about handling seasickness. I think I’m an expert
on the subject. You see, I get seasick looking at the boat when
she’s parked in the driveway. I don’t even need to
be on the water!
My particular claim to fame with this, though, is that I get seasick
when everyone else is fine, and am fine when everyone else is seasick – put
me in the middle of a force 8 gale and rolling waves, and I’m happy
as a clam. Put me on a nice smooth bay, and I turn green. The
gentle rocking motion that lulls others to sleep, lulls me to the side
of the boat. The fish love me.
I once was on the Fantasia, crossing the English Channel in such awful
weather that the ferry (the largest one in the fleet at the time) hulled
at Dover when it slammed sideways into the dock. For once, I wasn’t
the one curled up on the floor, half out of it from the drugs and wishing
I could die. Rather, I was cheerfully escorting a lot of Martians
to the outside deck and getting them to hold the rail securely while
they, er, chummed.
I’ve tried everything. Dramamine works well, but I’m
comatose. Last time I used it, my husband declared he’d never allow
me on board again when taking it as I’d bounce out of the boat
into the bay and still not wake up (he’s probably right on that
score, it took hours to surface from the arms of Morpheus). Ginger
capsules, swilled down with ginger ale, tasted good but didn’t
make a dent. The wristbands with the little plastic pressure points
only served to leave a pattern in my tan. I’ve stood at the
wheel and looked afar, only to find that afar kept moving up and down
gently, and I had to move aft quickly. Deep breaths didn’t
hack it, nor did saltines. With my history of motion sickness,
it would take a small power station to pulse enough electrical impulses
to my wrist, in order to break through the misery.
Two things do work for me, though. TransScop (the scopamine patch)
kept the queasies at bay enough for me to not wonder what on earth had
ever made me think I belonged on a boat, and I’m just fine in the
later afternoon and at night. Go figure, the fish are eagles and
I’m a darned owl.
Cari Mansfield
Hampton, Virginia
***********
During
the 2006 St. Pete to Isla Mujeres sailboat race, we ran for 3 days
in 40-45 mph winds and 15-20 foot seas. I had never used any seasickness
stuff until the first mate suggested we split a Scopolamine patch.
Then I ended up using an injectable dose. The 3rd night at sea I was
hallucinating that we were sailing down a dirt road with trees on either
side of the road, thinking how great it was that the wind was blowing
the right direction to allow us to hold a course right down the road.
I soon realized I was hallucinating.
When we got to Isla Mujeres I overheard a conversation at the next dinner
table with the Captain of a boat about 30 miles behind us that night.
He was having exactly the hallucination I had! We laughed about it
and we vowed to never take the stuff again. On the way back, the
first mate took some more and was hallucinating so badly that we considered
restraining him.
Upon getting back, a little research revealed that Scopolamine reduces
seasickness by deadening your inner ears. Oh gee, that's how we
keep our balance, too! Ruining one's balance during a storm at
sea is not a very safe thing to do, in my humble opinion.
So, there are two strikes against the stuff. Decreased balance
and hallucinations. The dangers of those are enough that I'll
never take anymore of the stuff. I prefer Ginger Snaps.
Capt. Bob Keim
Nashville, Tennessee
***********
Your
story on seasickness (July 2008, back page) implied that scopolamine
was a likely solution. My experience is definitely otherwise. While I
have never had a problem with seasickness, my wife is chronically seasick
when on the water, yet we love most to be on the water in the Caribbean.
For years, the solution was meclazine, but it required a new oral dose
every 6 - 12 hours. Scopolamine offered a 3 day patch; how convenient.
But, we discovered that scopolamine must NEVER be used if alcohol or
meclazine is consumed any time during or somewhat before or after, the
patch is in place. The result for us on three occasions: grand mal seizures.
Those are frightening enough at home, but on a boat in the Caribbean,
it's not paradise. What if she chokes, or injures herself against decks
or railings or the seizure comes on while she's in water of any depth.
So where's the doctor on Mustique? I know now!
So belatedly (and as by now a really concerned spouse) I read the patients' disclosure
and find scopolamine may result, not only in hallucinations, but in drowsiness,
blurred vision, disorientation, memory disturbances, dizziness, restlessness,
confusion, difficulty urinating, rashes, and changes in heart rate.
Then I read the physician's notice and it went on with additional
precautions that the patch should be used with caution on the elderly
(who is that?) and by those with impaired liver or kidney functions;
by those with narrow angle glaucoma, and by those with a history of seizures
or psychosis. She had had a seizure before taking the scopolamine, so
she qualified.
It's true that when Googling for scopolamine and seizures, the drug doesn't
seem to cause seizures, but if the patient has a propensity for seizures,
scopolamine can be worrisome or dangerous.
I was raised by a well-trained and respected family physician in the
time that doctors expected their patients to trust their advice. But
now, whenever any doctor prescribes any new medications, I'm sure to
ask for and read both the patients' and the physicians' disclosures and
do my own on-line homework before taking.
Buyer beware: scopolamine, never again.
Bill Seidler
Salida, Colorado
***********
Had, it. Dr. gave me Transderm Scop (Scopolamine) last year. Works
like a charm.
Allen Folts
***********
I
have tried almost all seasickness bands, ginger and other medications
with no luck with the exception of a prescription patch that goes behind
your ear. It worked for me before they took it off the market and I
use it again now that they have it out again. It works well for me
and I don’t
seem to have any side effects, nor do I get sleepy. I do use a patch
when I know the boating experience will be beyond the usual such as
going out the Golden Gate Bridge in confused seas, fishing on boats
with diesel fumes, sailing20for hours with a beam-sea or laying at
anchor with a lot of surge knocking the boat up and down continuously.
Hopefully some of these ideas help you manage your seasickness and keep
you having fun out on the water.
Renee DeMar
Morgan 43
San Francisco, California
***********
Hello there,
I have tried
everything under the sun to control my seasickness: patches, pills,
wrist bands, acupuncture - you name it, I've tried it. Sadly, they
either didn't work or I had severe side effects from them.
There's only one thing that works for me with little to no side effects:
Scopace (scopalamine). I've been using it for the past couple of years
and
it's truly a life saver. Scopace not only prevents seasickness if taken
before going out on the boat, but it can also pull you out of seasickness
if
it occurs while out on the big blue. The only side effect I've experienced
is what I call slight to moderate dry mouth. But you don't feel like
you have to drink-drink-drink all the time. It's more subtle than that.
Scopace has a website: scopace.com. I hope this information helps in your research.
Best,
Barb Fabian
Santa Barbara, California
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