Purpose: To investigate whether patients with vestibular migraine (VM) are more susceptible to carsickness than patients with non-vestibular migraine (NVM) or Meniere's disease (MD).
Methods: Consecutive patients with a diagnosis of definite VM, probable VM, NVM, or MD at our Headache and Dizziness clinics were interviewed using the same three questions to investigate the history of carsickness. The patients who had experienced carsickness in their lifetime and those who had still experienced carsickness in the past ten years were identified. The rates of carsickness were compared between groups.
Results: 78.4% of the VM patients had experienced carsickness in their lifetime, which was significantly higher than the patients with NVM (43.6%) and MD (18.2%). Both the lifetime rate of carsickness and the rate in the past ten years were highest in the patients with definite VM, followed by probable VM, NVM, and MD (p less than 0.05, chi-square test). The odds ratio of lifetime carsickness for VM versus MD was high (8.7).
Conclusion: Both patients with definite VM and probable VM were more susceptible to carsickness than the patients with NVM or MD. This reinforces the theory of vestibular hypersensitivity in VM. We suggest that a past history of carsickness may help in the diagnosis of VM, and especially in distinguishing VM from MD.