Nausea (Latin nausea, from Greek ναυσία, nausiē, "motion sickness", "feeling sick," "queasy" or "wamble") is a sensation of unease and discomfort in the upper stomach with an involuntary urge to vomit. It often, but not always, precedes vomiting. A person can suffer nausea without vomiting. (Greek ναῦς = "ship"; ναυσία started as meaning "seasickness".)
Nausea is a non-specific symptom, which means that it has many possible causes. Some common causes of nausea are motion sickness, dizziness, migraine, fainting, gastroenteritis (stomach infection) or food poisoning. Side effects of many medications including cancer chemotherapy, nauseants or morning sickness in early pregnancy. Nausea may also be caused by anxiety, disgust and depression.
Medications taken to prevent nausea are called antiemetics and include diphenhydramine, metoclopramide and ondansetron.
Read more about Nausea: Differential Diagnosis, Diagnostic Approach, Treatment, Prognosis, Epidemiology
Famous quotes containing the word nausea:
“I had learned to have a perfect nausea for the theatre: the continual repetition of the same words and the same gestures, night after night, and the caprices, the way of looking at life, and the entire rigmarole disgusted me.”
—Isadora Duncan (1878–1927)