ORPHA:210272
Mal de débarquement
Also known as: Disembarkment syndrome · MdD · MdDS · Sickness of disembarkment
Publications
313
70.8th percentile
Trials
6
Interventional, condition-specific
Researchers
628
Distinct authors in sample
Gene link
—
Readiness
3/6
Stages with a signal
Clinical definition (Orphanet)
Mal de débarquement (MdD) is a rare otorhinolaryngological disease characterized by a persistent sensation of motion such as rocking, swaying, tumbling and/or bobbing following a period of exposure to passive movement, usually an ocean cruise or other types of water, train, automobile or air travel and less commonly other movements (like sleeping on a waterbed). Onset may be spontaneous in some patients. Manifestations begin shortly after the stimulus, persist for 6 months to years and may be associated with anxiety, fatigue and impaired cognition. Symptoms are often accentuated when in an enclosed space or when attempting to be motionless (sitting, lying down or standing in a stationary position) and are relieved when in passive motion such as in a moving car, airplane or train.
How rare: How common this is has not been clearly measured.
Cross-references
Joined from Mondo / Orphanet. MeSH labels may enter searches; UMLS / OMIM / NCIT are stored for reference.
- MONDO:0016217
- MeSH:C537840
- UMLS:C1608983
Additional Mondo synonyms (3)
MDD · disembarkment syndrome · sickness of disembarkment
Research stages
Trial readiness signals
Where this condition sits on an open-data research pipeline — not how close a treatment is, and not medical advice. Empty stages often mean “not in these databases under this Mondo ID,” not “impossible.”
3/6 stages with a signal
An interventional trial matched this condition name on ClinicalTrials.gov — see trials below.
- Gene identifiedNot found
No GenCC disease–gene assertion in this build
- LiteraturePresent
313 matched papers (235 in last 10 years) Source
- Phenotype characterisedPresent
17 HPO annotations (e.g. Postural instability; Unsteady gait; Vertigo) Source
- Animal modelNot found
No Alliance genotype “model of” associations via Monarch for these Mondo IDs
- Orphan designationNot found
No FDA or EMA orphan-drug designation matched this disease via UMLS or preferred name Source
- Interventional trialPresent
6 matched on ClinicalTrials.gov (1 recruiting in sample)
Biology
Genes and phenotypes
Gene–disease validity from GenCC, plus phenotypes and animal models joined from Monarch Initiative via Mondo ID — not a clinical diagnosis aid.
Do we know what causes it?
Not yet — the cause hasn't been pinned down in GenCC.
No strong gene–disease assertion joined for this Orphanet entity.
Phenotypes (Monarch / HPO)
17
Associated phenotypes · MONDO:0016217
- Postural instability
- Unsteady gait
- Vertigo
- Abnormality of eye movement
- Blurred vision
Showing 5 of 17 — open Monarch for the full list.
Animal models (Monarch / Alliance)
None returned for this Mondo ID. Empty here is not proof that no model organism work exists under another name or gene.
Monarch fetch 2026-07-29
Therapies
Designations, candidates, and chemicals
FDA OOPD and EMA orphan designations, Open Targets clinical candidates, and CTD chemical associations via MyDisease.info. These never change the interventional-trial headline.
Orphan designation (FDA · EMA)
No designation matched this disease via UMLS or preferred name on the FDA OOPD mirror or EMA orphan register. Absence here is not proof that none exists under another wording.
Open Targets candidates
No drugs or clinical candidates returned for this Mondo ID on Open Targets.
CTD chemicals (MyDisease.info)
No CTD chemical associations returned for this Mondo ID.
Literature
Is anyone studying this?
313
313 papers have ever been published on this condition (under this name). For scale, breast cancer has over 700,000. Median papers in the last 10 years for a rare disease in this dataset (publications denominator n=3967) is 59.
313 papers since the earliest indexed year in this search — median last-10-year count for a rare disease in this dataset is 59 (publications denominator n=3967).
235 in the last 10 years · medium confidence · 70.8th percentile (publications denominator)
Phrase hits: 313 · MeSH hits: 6
Who's working on it?
628
Distinct author names in 200 sampled papers — named people below.
Who's working on it?
People publishing on this condition (sampled Europe PMC records). Affiliation is the most recent found in that sample.
- 01
- 02Mucci V14 papers · 2024
School of Science, Western Sydney University, Sydney, NSW 2751, Australia.
Papers in Europe PMC - 03Browne CJ12 papers · 2024
School of Science, Western Sydney University, Sydney, NSW 2751, Australia.
Papers in Europe PMC - 04Cho C12 papers · 2026
Department of Neurology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai , New York, NY , USA.
Papers in Europe PMC - 05Gleghorn D10 papers · 2022
2 Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Papers in Europe PMC - 06Wuyts FL10 papers · 2025
Antwerp University Research Centre for Equilibrium and Aerospace (AUREA) Antwerp, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium.
Papers in Europe PMC - 07Djalilian HR9 papers · 2023
Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of California, Irvine, USA; Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of California, Irvine, USA. Electronic address: hdjalili@uci.edu.
Papers in Europe PMC - 08Yakushin SB9 papers · 2026
Icahn School of Medicine, Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, NY, United States.
Papers in Europe PMC - 09Maruta J8 papers · 2026
Department of Neurology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States.
Papers in Europe PMC - 10Yuan H8 papers · 2021
1 Stephenson School of Biomedical Engineering, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma.
Papers in Europe PMC
Clinical research
Is a treatment being tested?
6
interventional trials for this specific condition
6 interventional trials matched this specific condition name; 1 currently recruiting in our sample.
Data as of 11 September 2026
6 interventional trials — more than 77.2% of diseases in the trials denominator have none at all (5501 of 7126; this disease is at the 90.1th percentile).
medium confidence · 90.1th percentile (trials denominator)
Recruiting interventional trials
From the matched ClinicalTrials.gov set
6 interventional trials matched after quoted-phrase search and title/condition post-filter.
- NCT05460520·RECRUITING·DevRobust Treatment for Mal de Débarquement Syndrome
Not reviewed·Conditions: Mal de Débarquement Syndrome·Matched via name phrase
Other registries (secondary)
Broader net from EU CTIS, ISRCTN, and ICTRP when available — deduped against ClinicalTrials.gov IDs already counted above. Dual-model LLM relevance gates what we keep. These rows are not added to the interventional headline.
raw 0 · after dedupe 0 · already on CT.gov 0 · kept 0 · parent 0 · uncertain 0 · dropped 0 · fetched 2026-07-30
Source notes: ictrp: Error: ICTRP public search unavailable (WHO portal is SPA-only; SOAP needs partnership). Tried: https://apps.who.int/tri
No secondary-registry studies passed dual-model relevance for this condition name (after dedupe).
Where to find support
Condition-specific patient organisations, when Orphanet lists them, are on the disease’s Orphanet page. We also link umbrella groups that support undiagnosed and ultra-rare families.
Orphanet entry for Mal de débarquement — check Associations / patient organisations on that page.
India — NPRD
Last verified 2026-07-26This ORPHAcode is not on our curated NPRD list (direct or Mondo-parent match). That does not decide clinical eligibility; families in India should ask a notified Centre of Excellence about current coverage.
Hand-curated for this project. ORPHAcode mappings are best-effort and may be incomplete or imprecise for umbrella categories. Parent (Mondo) matches mean the policy lists a broader category — confirm eligibility with a Centre of Excellence. Financial entitlements summarised from public policy statements and may change. This is not official government guidance.
How we counted this
Europe PMC query (preferred label + any corrected label + Orphanet and Mondo exact synonyms, stoplisted; unioned with resolved MeSH labels when available). UMLS / OMIM / NCIT cross-references are stored on the overview but are not added to the query string.
"Mal de débarquement" OR "Disembarkment syndrome" OR "Sickness of disembarkment" OR "Sickness of the disembarkment"
MeSH descriptor terms unioned into the query: Mal de debarquement
ClinicalTrials.gov query (quoted phrases + MeSH via query.cond, plus recall-expansion terms when used):
"Mal de débarquement" OR "Disembarkment syndrome" OR "Sickness of disembarkment" OR "Sickness of the disembarkment" OR "Mal de debarquement"
Interventional trials matched via: phrase, mesh (mesh = registered under a MeSH descriptor no name phrase would catch; recall-expansion = gene / selected parent terms used only for trials).
Study-type breakdown: 6 interventional · 0 observational · 0 expanded access. Only interventional studies enter the trial headline.
Query health: ok — strategies attempted: phrase, mesh; with hits: phrase, mesh
Run this search on ClinicalTrials.gov
Synonyms dropped by stoplist: MdD; MdDS
Confidence reasoning
- Preferred label is multi-word and distinctive
- 2 synonym(s) dropped by stoplist (may under-count)
- No label/synonym collisions with other diseases in this corpus
Ingested 2026-07-27T09:31:22.106Z