For travel sickness and vertigo. Taking it two hours before you travel is what makes the difference.
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Cinnarizine is an antihistamine with additional calcium-channel-blocking activity, used mainly for balance and travel-related symptoms. It damps down signals from the inner ear to the brain's vomiting centre.
It is less sedating than older options such as hyoscine or promethazine, though it still causes drowsiness in many people.
It works far better as a preventer than as a rescue treatment. Once the vomiting has started, a swallowed tablet is unlikely to help much.
Take with or after food to reduce stomach upset.
The non-drug measures genuinely work and cost nothing: face forward, look at the horizon, sit where movement is least — over the wing, midships, front seat — keep air flowing, avoid reading or screens, and eat something light rather than nothing at all.
Cinnarizine can cause or unmask parkinsonism — tremor, stiffness and slowness of movement — and depression. This is well recognised, frequently missed, and usually reversible on stopping.
It is a reason not to take it continuously for months, especially over the age of 65.
Caution with: older age, glaucoma, prostate enlargement, epilepsy, liver or kidney impairment, and pregnancy or breastfeeding.
Alcohol markedly increases the drowsiness.
No routine monitoring for occasional travel use.
With regular long-term use, review specifically for parkinsonian features and low mood, particularly in anyone over 65 — these develop gradually and are easy to attribute to ageing instead.
Yes, though cinnarizine is available over the counter as Stugeron for a few pounds, which is faster and cheaper for ordinary travel sickness. We would point you there first.
Where a consultation genuinely helps:
A prescription is never guaranteed. This page is information, not an offer to supply.
Stugeron and generic cinnarizine cost a few pounds over the counter, and own-brand versions are identical. A pack lasts several trips.
NHS prescriptions are free in Wales.
Seat position, horizon-watching, airflow and not reading do more for most people than any tablet. Motion sickness is a mismatch between what the eyes and the inner ear report, and closing that gap is the actual fix.
For travel use, there is nothing to stop — take it for the journey and stop afterwards.
For vertigo, use it for the shortest period that gets you through the acute phase. As with other vestibular sedatives, prolonged use delays the brain's own compensation and slows recovery.
If you have been taking it regularly for months, particularly over 65, it is worth a deliberate review — tremor, stiffness, slowness or low mood may be the medicine rather than ageing, and both usually improve on stopping.
Two hours before you set off. Taking it as you board is the commonest reason people say it did not work.
Often, yes — less than older options, but enough to matter. Do not drive, and do not combine it with alcohol.
From age 5, at half the adult dose. Below that, take advice.
Not for long periods, and particularly not over 65. Prolonged use can cause parkinsonism and low mood, and in vertigo it delays your recovery. Persistent dizziness needs a diagnosis.
For a cruise, hyoscine patches are the most effective option. Alongside that: a midships cabin, fresh air, the horizon, and eating lightly rather than not at all.
It is an antihistamine, but a sedating older-generation one that acts on the balance pathways. Fexofenadine or loratadine will do nothing for travel sickness.
Clinically reviewed by Dr Mohammad Zubair Khan, GMC 7563469
Last reviewed
September 8, 2026
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