The Pharmacology of Vertigo and Nystagmus

For many years the approach to drug treatment of vestibular disorders and nystagmus has been fairly primitive, largely empiric, and somewhat disappointing. While the utility of a number of medications for vertigo from acute unilateral peripheral vestibular dysfunction became well-established, their mechanism of action neurologically remained unclear. The treatment of nystagmus from central vestibular or ocular motor dysfunction has been at even greater disadvantage, with rare successes, a dearth of controlled trials, and crude rationales based upon vague notions that inhibition (and hence GABA agonism) is good and excitation is bad (and therefore cholinergic antagonists might help).