For Immediate Release
June 5, 2003
Contact: Robert Cavanaugh
732-632-1586
New Jersey Neuroscience Institute Physician
Studies Motion Sickness Medications
Edison, NJ - Phillip D. Kramer, M.D., director of the Vestibulo-Ocular Laboratory at New Jersey Neuroscience Institute (NJNI), JFK Medical Center, is set to begin a study in June 2003 to determine specifically how certain medications decrease motion sickness. The study is being funded by the National Institutes of Health. With his expertise in oto-neurology, balance, dizziness, and vertigo, Dr. Kramer will serve as principal investigator for the study.
The three-year study, Correlating Drug Effects on the Vestibular Ocular Reflex in Motion Sickness, will be a double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel group study and will evaluate Valium and Antivert on those age 18 and over. Comments Kramer, “The vestibular ocular reflex gives us a way of looking at the balance system and evaluating how the balance system is working. We know that certain that drugs decrease motion sickness also affect the balance system. The question the study is asking is do these drugs decrease motion sickness by their effects on the balance system?”
Three benefits are anticipated from the answer to this question. Says Kramer, “First, this research may result in an effective technique for determining how drugs affect the balance system. Second, we may be able to find new applications for drugs currently available. Finally, we may give pharmaceutical companies a rapid and cost-effective way of evaluating whether a drug will be useful in preventing motion sickness.”
Motion sickness occurs when the inner ear, eyes, and other areas of the body that detect motion send conflicting messages to the brain, resulting in symptoms such as a change in skin color, sweating, malaise, headache, nausea and vomiting.
Dr. Kramer is an associate professor of Neuroscience, Seton Hall School of Graduate Medical Education in South Orange. He is board certified in neurology.
The study will be conducted in conjunction with the Balance Clinic at NJNI. The Clinic offers a multi-disciplinary approach to caring for patients with balance disorders. The Clinic offers the combined expertise of neurologists, neurosurgeons, audiologists and physical therapists.
The New Jersey Neuroscience Institute at JFK Medical Center is a comprehensive facility designed exclusively for the diagnosis, treatment, and research of complex neurological disorders in adults and children. Services offered at the Institute include programs in spine and brain tumors, dizziness and balance disorders, epilepsy, cerebral palsy, stroke and movement disorders.
For more information on the New Jersey Neuroscience Institute, call 732-321-7950 or visit the facility online at www.njneuro.org.