What does scopolamine mean?
Scopolamine is an alkaloid drug best known for preventing and treating motion sickness. It is often supplied as a patch placed behind the ear, allowing the medicine to be absorbed gradually during travel. By blocking acetylcholine receptors in the nervous system, it can reduce nausea and vomiting caused by motion, though it may also cause blurred vision, dry mouth, drowsiness, confusion, or unusual perceptions. Healthcare professionals may use it for other purposes, including reducing secretions during procedures and, in some contexts, assisting childbirth. Because it can produce hallucinations and a detached, dream-like state, scopolamine is also misused as an recreational drug. The word is therefore associated both with practical medicine and with the hazards of psychoactive misuse. It belongs to the tropane alkaloid family, alongside related substances such as atropine, but its clinical role and effects should not be treated as interchangeable with those of other drugs.
nounScopolamine is an alkaloid drug that blocks the action of acetylcholine in the nervous system. It is used to prevent or treat motion sickness and is sometimes used in medicine for other purposes, including reducing secretions during certain procedures.
- A medicinal alkaloid used chiefly to prevent or treat motion sickness, including the form delivered by a patch.
- An anticholinergic alkaloid used in some medical procedures for its effects on secretions and, in certain settings, for its effects on the nervous system.
- An illicit or misused drug, sometimes taken to produce hallucinations or a dissociated state.
"The doctor prescribed a scopolamine patch for her long sea journey."
"She placed the scopolamine patch behind her ear before boarding the ferry."
"The medication was administered before the procedure to reduce secretions."
"The substance is also misused as a recreational drug, so its possession and use are subject to legal restrictions in many countries."
The word is normally used as an uncountable mass noun when referring to the substance; plural forms are uncommon.
"The laboratory tested samples of the two scopolamines."
A drug that can steady a traveller's stomach may also leave that traveller seeing the world through a blurred and sometimes strange haze.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does scopolamine come from?
The name comes from the plant genus Scopolia, which was named after the Italian naturalist Giovanni Antonio Scopoli, and from the chemical suffix -amine, indicating an organic base. The drug occurs naturally in plants of the Solanaceae family and was later isolated and chemically characterized. It is also widely known as hyoscine, an older name whose history is connected with the substance's traditional use in preventing seasickness.
How scopolamine is actually used
This is a medical and scientific term, rather than everyday vocabulary. In clinical use it may be described as antimuscarinic or anticholinergic. The mention of psychoactive effects can carry an association with illicit or recreational use, although the legitimate drug has important medical applications.
Easily confused with scopolamine
Both are anticholinergic alkaloids used in medicine, but atropine has different clinical uses and generally differs in its duration of action and effects on the nervous system.