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We're traveling by car in Tamil Nadu, India, and my wife is suffering from severe motion sickness.

I'm looking for some brand names of medicines that are available without prescription to prevent this.

We have stopped in two medium sized pharmacies, but both said that they had no such medicine. I find this strange as such medicine is readily available over the counter in other countries I have been to.

I've tried searching for the web for this, but I failed to find results that were particular to India.

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    As someone who's suffered from travel sickness for many years, ginger extract capsules have worked better for me than any "pharmaceutical" product. In many parts of the world, this is readily available in health-food type stores rather than requiring a pharmacy.
    – Peregrine
    Mar 26 '17 at 8:08
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    Maybe just ask the chemist what he has for motion sickness rather than look for a particular brand?
    – RedBaron
    Mar 26 '17 at 11:30
  • @RedBaron As you can see from the question, I already did that and they said they didn't have any such medicine.
    – Fiksdal
    Mar 26 '17 at 11:34
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    A Times of India-article mentions Dramamine and Belladonna as possible medicines. This site lists available brands in India, namely Dramamine, Draminate and Gravol. On the same site all are indicated as over-the-counter drugs. Another site lists a few more generics.
    – mts
    Mar 26 '17 at 11:52
  • Don't look for brands just look what salts you need. You will get same medicine with different name.
    – N Randhawa
    Apr 13 '18 at 22:32
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Specific to medicines available in India, I have no personal experience, but googling brought up:

  • A Times of India article on motion sickness:

    Antihistamine medications are commonly used to treat and prevent motion sickness, by reducing stimulation of the inner ear. These medications are only really effective if taken before motion sickness begins.
    Meclizine (e.g. Dramamine) is an antihistamine often used to treat motion sickness. Belladonna is another medication used, one formulation of which is the scopalamine medicated skin patch.

  • DrugsUpdate.com seems to be a site aimed to Indian farmacists, and for Dimenhydrinate it lists three brands:

    • Dramamine from RPG
    • Draminate from RPG-LS
    • Gravol from Wallace (Rivella)

    For all three medicines it states "Dimenhydrinate is an over-the-counter drug [...]" so I would assume you can buy it without a prescription in pharmacies, but not personal experience (they even seem to be available on Amazon India).

  • Medindia seems to be a similar site and also lists

    • Transmine from Cian Healthcare Pvt Ltd
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Besides the medicines mentioned above, Avomine is another medicine that you can buy. If you are traveling in a rural area or small town, the pharmacy employees may not understand English well. Ask for medicine to stop nausea and vomiting. In the local language, Tamil, ask for "Vaanthi nirkka maatthirai" (means tablets to stop vomiting).

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Read my answer for Preventing sea sickness to get a list of nearly all brand names of sea sickness.

Getting seasick during car driving has some very specific causes:

  • Do not break hard, do not accelerate hard. Because cars are very stable and cannot pitch/swing, it is the jerky movements triggering sea sickness. It can be also very bad road conditions, in this case drive slowly.

  • Do not overtake if necessary, keep your distance to the car in front so you can anticipate the movement and adjust the speed slowly. Drive steadily and not too fast, especially in curves. Again to lower and avoid jerky motions. If you absolutely convinced that you drive steadily, put (when you are alone driving) a full glass of water (one thumb distance between water level and edge) between your legs as test. It will tell you if you are really a steady driver.

  • Avoid any stressful environment. No honking, no cursing.

Your wife should do that:

  • Sit in the front position alongside you, do not look sideways, do not read, do not look at her mobile. She should look to the front, keeping the horizon in her eye.

  • Most important tell you when she feels that it begins: The sign is always that your mouth begin to water. Driving by car has the important advantage that you can stop on the road so that the seasickness cedes. If she is one of those wives who simply cannot open her mouth even if she begins to turn green, you need to watch her and decide when to pause. The important thing is that you should have enough time that pausing is no hassle. Once the body is able to acknowledge that it can escape seasickness by stopping, it is getting better to adapting because it can relax.

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    This is a great answer. As a minor nitpick, I'll add that not using the horn can be rather dangerous in India as it's a major part of communication in Indian traffic. There are many situations where, if one doesn't sound the horn, other drivers will assume one is not there, risking a collision.
    – Fiksdal
    Nov 25 '17 at 20:32

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