Coping with nausea

January 2007     View PDF     En español

Anti-nausea medications

When nausea won’t lessen or go away with practical or dietary changes, anti-nausea medications might help. These include prochlorperazine (Compazine), perphenazine (Trilafon) and thiethylperazine (Torecan). Your doctor may prescribe sedatives or hypnotics like diazepam (Valium), lorazepam (Ativan). Cannabinoids may also be useful including dronabinol (Marinol—which comes from the psychoactive part of marijuana, called THC) and marijuana itself. Finally, granisetron (Kytril) and ondansteron (Zofran) are among the newest anti-nausea drugs. If nausea prevents you from taking pills or holding them down, some anti-nausea medications are available as suppositories, which act quickly and reliably.

Talk to your doctor about the risks and benefits of anti-nausea medications. While they may ease feelings of nausea, they may also have their own side effects. Some are not recommended for use during pregnancy. If you already take medications to treat HIV, consider whether adding another prescription is something you can and want to do. Learn about the possible drug side effects of anti-nausea medications when taken with the therapies you use for HIV disease. For more information, read Drug Interactions.