Bonine or Dramamine

David · #1 (**permalink**) January 17th, 2001, 08:35 PM

which motion sickness medicine is better, bonine or dramimine. ive heard that dramamine can cause drowsiness, which that is the last thing i want to do on a cruise is sleep! can anyone give any info?

#2 (**permalink**) January 20th, 2001, 04:13 PM

I use Bonine. It does not make me sleepy. It also has fewer contraindications than Dramamine. Do not get confused when you are in the store. Dramamine II is the same thing as Bonine: 25mg meclizine HCL. Original Dramamine is
dimenhydrinate.

#3 (**permalink**) May 4th, 2001, 10:47 PM

Babette gave a pretty good reply...except that she did forget to relate that Bonine (meclizine) can possibly cause drowsiness also. The incidence is not as high with Bonine (~1-5%) as with Dramamine (dimenhydrinate; ~12-18%), Both have about the same relative effectiveness in preventing sea sickness. The big benefit in taking Bonine or other meclizine products over Dramamine/dimenhydrinate products is that you only need to take Bonine once or twice a day, where Dramamine should be taken every 6 hours.

Hope this helps!

John Burns R.Ph.