Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsTreating Dizziness With MedicationCauses of DizzinessChoosing a TreatmentCoping With Dizziness
Table of ContentsView All
View All
Table of Contents
Treating Dizziness With Medication
Causes of Dizziness
Choosing a Treatment
Coping With Dizziness
Dizziness is a broad term encompassing a range of sensations, such as feeling faint, weak, unsteady, lightheaded, or off-balance. Experts separate dizziness into several main categories, including:
Dizziness can sometimes be treated with medications. The type of medication selected will be based largely on which of the above types of dizziness you’re experiencing, as they often have root causes that are quite different. It is best to prevent or treat these causes to avoid unnecessary use of dizziness medication.
This article will discuss how to treat dizziness, the potential causes of the symptoms, and available medications.
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Dizziness is a broad term that covers feelings of unsteadiness, lightheadedness, being off-balance, or feeling like your head is spinning. Vertigo is the most common category of dizziness, where you feel a false sense of motion or a spinning sensation.
Sometimes, medications can be used to treat dizziness, including vertigo. However, they are most often treating the root cause of your dizziness to prevent it from happening rather than directly treating the symptom itself.
One potential cause of vertigo isbenign paroxysmal positional vertigo, which may be treated with Antivert (meclizine) and certain physical maneuvers through physical therapy.
While medications may be used to improve dizziness, your healthcare provider may recommend adjusting or even taking away a part of your medication regimen, as many medications have the potential tocause dizzinessthrough different mechanisms. These include the following types of drugs discussed below.
Heart medications:
Other medications:
Causes of Dizziness When Lying Down (and When to Worry)
Choosing a Treatment for Dizziness
Your healthcare provider should go through a series of questions about your symptoms, perform physical examinations, and review your complete medication list. This will helpidentify the causeof your dizziness and determine the best solution.
When none of these avenues work, medications may be necessary to treat the dizziness directly or the condition causing it. A few classes and examples used include:
Are There Over-the-Counter Medications for Dizziness?
Most of the above mentioned medications require a prescription, as they are often prescribed for reasons that a healthcare provider needs to determine.
Dramamine (dimenhydrinate) is an over-the-counter (OTC) product for motion sickness. You would typically take it before a bumpy boat, car, or helicopter ride. Meclizine is also available OTC as several brand-name products, including Dramamine Less Drowsy or Bonine Motion Sickness.
Another solution is a motion sickness patch that can be placed behind the ear or around the belly button and worn for up to three days. Some of these patches contain ingredients like mint andgingerthat slowly get released and absorbed into your skin and may help treat symptoms of motion sickness.
An anticholinergic drug called Transderm Scop (scopolamine) is also available in a three-day patch and helps calm the muscles in your stomach and intestines.
Dealing with dizziness can be frustrating because sometimes it seems to come on without cause. It’s normal to experience minor dizziness from time to time, like when standing up quickly after sitting down for a long time or on a bumpy boat or car ride. Moderate to severe dehydration can also cause dizziness.
Outside of these frequent causes, the best way to cope is to find the root cause or trigger of your dizziness and address that problem. Going to see your healthcare provider and doing a thorough history of your other medical conditions and medications can often help pinpoint the cause of your dizziness and help you take the right steps toward a solution.
Summary
OTC dizziness medications may be helpful on some occasions, like preventing motion sickness and associated dizziness. However, they won’t be useful if the cause of your dizziness is due to something else, such as an inner ear issue, another medication you’re taking, or a bad migraine.
Most medications used for these issues treat or prevent the causes of dizziness rather than the dizziness itself. For that reason, a visit to your healthcare provider is your best bet, as it is often necessary for them to perform a thorough medical history covering medication use and potentially some physical examinations to determine the cause and the best resolution for your dizziness.
4 SourcesVerywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Post RE, Dickerson LM.Dizziness: a diagnostic approach.Am Fam Physician. 2010;82(4):361-368,369.Mandalà M, Salerni L, Nuti D.Benign positional paroxysmal vertigo treatment: a practical update.Curr Treat Options Neurol. 2019;21(12):66. doi:10.1007/s11940-019-0606-xLeung AK, Hon KL.Motion sickness: an overview.Drugs Context. 2019;8:2019-9-4. doi:10.7573/dic.2019-9-4Food and Drug Administration.Scopolamine prescribing information.
4 Sources
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Post RE, Dickerson LM.Dizziness: a diagnostic approach.Am Fam Physician. 2010;82(4):361-368,369.Mandalà M, Salerni L, Nuti D.Benign positional paroxysmal vertigo treatment: a practical update.Curr Treat Options Neurol. 2019;21(12):66. doi:10.1007/s11940-019-0606-xLeung AK, Hon KL.Motion sickness: an overview.Drugs Context. 2019;8:2019-9-4. doi:10.7573/dic.2019-9-4Food and Drug Administration.Scopolamine prescribing information.
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
Post RE, Dickerson LM.Dizziness: a diagnostic approach.Am Fam Physician. 2010;82(4):361-368,369.Mandalà M, Salerni L, Nuti D.Benign positional paroxysmal vertigo treatment: a practical update.Curr Treat Options Neurol. 2019;21(12):66. doi:10.1007/s11940-019-0606-xLeung AK, Hon KL.Motion sickness: an overview.Drugs Context. 2019;8:2019-9-4. doi:10.7573/dic.2019-9-4Food and Drug Administration.Scopolamine prescribing information.
Post RE, Dickerson LM.Dizziness: a diagnostic approach.Am Fam Physician. 2010;82(4):361-368,369.
Mandalà M, Salerni L, Nuti D.Benign positional paroxysmal vertigo treatment: a practical update.Curr Treat Options Neurol. 2019;21(12):66. doi:10.1007/s11940-019-0606-x
Leung AK, Hon KL.Motion sickness: an overview.Drugs Context. 2019;8:2019-9-4. doi:10.7573/dic.2019-9-4
Food and Drug Administration.Scopolamine prescribing information.
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