Q: After a five-day cruise, I felt the ground ashore rolling under my legs for days, as if I were still at sea. What's going on?
A: It is a condition that has been called mal de debarquement.
Timothy C. Hain, an expert on dizziness disorders in Chicago, and others published a study of the condition in Archives of Otolaryngology in 1999, finding that 26 of 27 sufferers responding to a survey of passengers about severe post-cruise symptoms were women ages 40 to 50.
Most people suffer for a month or less, though the subjects of the study had it for months or years.
Mal de debarquement is not linked to any injury to the ear or brain and is generally described as a variant of motion sickness, though most motion-sickness medications do not work once it starts. There is no proof of any cause.
Because of the preponderance of premenopausal women with symptoms, there is some suspicion that the problem could be linked to hormones. Other suggestions for a cause include a type of migraine or the results of overcompensation for sensory input while trying to maintain balance on a boat.
Another possible cause is the adaptation to rolling, that is, rocking side to side, while rotating the head. A study could investigate whether people who do a lot of head rotation on a boat are more likely to develop it.
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