Navy Scientists Testing Anti-Motion Sickness Gel

By John Ohab

Motion sickness is a wide-spread, often debilitating problem across the Services.

Military scientists have studied the drug scopolamine as the leading countermeasure to motion sickness for decades. Current scopolamine delivery methods are effective, but have serious drawbacks. For example, oral scopolamine takes up to 60 minutes to take effect – too long if you’re already incapacitated. The scopolamine patch can take up to eight hours to begin working and involves drug levels often associated with increased side effects.

In answer to these drawbacks, a team of Naval Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory (NAMRL) scientists has been working on an alternative delivery method for scopolamine: intranasal administration. This work has demonstrated that intranasal scopolamine is easily administered, quickly and efficiently absorbed, and highly effective at low doses.

Last fall, the NAMRL team received the “Best in Research” award for presentation of their work on the efficacy of intranasal scopolamine gel as a countermeasure for motion sickness in dynamic military environments. This award, given at the 115th annual meeting of the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States in St.Louis, MO, highlighted the scientific rigor of NAMRL’s work. The operational relevance and great potential impact of this work was recognized again this past spring with the Surgeon General’s Award for Excellence in Research at the Inaugural Navy Medicine Research Symposium, Lansdowne, VA.

This year NAMRL scientists were awarded a grant from the Defense Medical Research and Development Program to take the next critical steps in optimizing intranasal delivery of scopolamine. The gel formulation is being replaced with a fine spray with the goals of increasing absorption speed and identifying the lowest possible effective dose. The ultimate goal is to provide a “just-in-time” treatment for motion sickness in fast-changing, dynamic, operational settings to keep our warfighters mission ready.

For more information, see the report, “Efficacy of Intranasal Scopolamine Gel for Motion Sickness Treatment in Aviation Candidates“.

The Naval Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory conducts research, development, test, and evaluation in aerospace medicine and related sciences to enhance the health, safety, and operational readiness of Navy, Marine Corps, and other military personnel.