Pharmacotherapy of vertigo: any news to be expected?

Despite the introduction of new medicinal agents for the treatment of vertigo, no new pharmacological entities have been established. For several years all "new" products have belonged to the well established pharmacological classes of antihistamines (H1-antagonists), calcium-entry inhibitors or vasodilators. In this article these pharmacological classes will be briefly reviewed, with special emphasis given to the pre-synaptic histamine receptor (H3), a recently established pharmacological function. Compounds interfering with this receptor, especially the antagonists, seem to offer new ways of treating vertigo and possibly also new ways of developing new therapeutic agents.