A Double-blind Comparison of Scopolamine With Cinnarizin for Prevention of Simulator Sickness

Medical Corps, Israel Defense Force

Status: Unknown

Conditions: Simulator Sickness

Treatments: Drug: scopolamine; Drug: cinnarizine

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01198106

792-2008-IDF-CTIL

Details and patient eligibility

About

BACKGROUND:flight simulator have become an important component in pilot training. However, they are known to be associated with motion sickness like symptoms defined as Simulator Sickness (SS). Prevention countermeasures against motion sickness have been studied extensively focusing on cholinergic blockers and antihistamines. Most comparataive studies emphasized the effectiveness of scopolamine over outher agents. Evidence, though, on prophylaxis against SS is sparse.

OBJECTIVE: to assess the effectiveness of oral scopolamine versus oral cinnarizine or placebo for SS prevention in helicopter pilots.

DESIGN: a prospective, placebo controlled double-blind.

SETTING: Israel Air Forse (IAF) Helicopter Aircaft vWeapon System Trainer.

PARTICIPANTS: IAF experienced helicopter pilots.

INTERVENTION: 0.6 mg oral scopolamine or 50 mg oral cinnarizine or placebo 1 hour before beginning of a 3 sortie simulator training

Enrollment: 100 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 21 to 50 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• age 21 to 50 years, qualified helicopter pilots
• history of average TS score in SSQ more than 7.48

Exclusion criteria

• known vestibular, visual or central nervous system pathology
• fever of more than 37.2 degrees
• any MS like symptom prior to simulator training
• any compromising acute health problem

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Crossover Assignment

Masking: Single Blind