Live data from Hacker News

The Uselessness of Phenylephrine

science.org

21–30 of 613 posts

Re: The Uselessness of Phenylephrine

#22

Phenylephrine must be totally useless since pseudoephedrine barely does anything in my experience!

It's not super effective on me either, except for triggering crippling anxiety, but remember that we are outliers, and it's a very effective medication for most folks.

Re: The Uselessness of Phenylephrine

#23
post #19

I'm also irked by the fact that OTC cough suppressants like dextromethorphan are equally useless.

Citation? Dextromethorphan works very well for me. (Also DXM is a recreational drug which is why it's always sold OTC with either Tylenol in it or as an extended-release formula)

Re: The Uselessness of Phenylephrine

#24
post #18
post #13

The lack of availability of proper pseudoephedrine in USA led to situation where there are papers describing how to turn methamphetamine into pseudoephedrine, not the other way around. With explanation in abstract that its easier to buy meth than pseudoephedrine.

lol https://improbable.com/airchives/paperair/volume19/v19i3/Pse...

Authored by O. Hai, and I. B. Hakkenshit

Re: The Uselessness of Phenylephrine

#25
post #17

I wonder how difficult it would be to get the restrictions on pseudoephedrine rolled back now that it appears unlikely they're accomplishing their original goal of limiting the methamphetamine supply. Concern (legitimate and otherwise) over ability to breathe is a popular topic in politics lately.

Difficult. Dianne Feinstein was the figure behind the changes, as part of her war on drugs. She wanted pseudoephedrine made prescription only too.

https://www.drugcaucus.senate.gov/press-releases/feinstein-g...

ironically, OR and MS, the states listed in that report, are so far the only 2 that are starting to roll back the restrictions.

Our elected officials seem adverse to admitting something doesn't work well and rolling it back, unfortunately.

Re: The Uselessness of Phenylephrine

#27
post #18
post #13

The lack of availability of proper pseudoephedrine in USA led to situation where there are papers describing how to turn methamphetamine into pseudoephedrine, not the other way around. With explanation in abstract that its easier to buy meth than pseudoephedrine.

lol https://improbable.com/airchives/paperair/volume19/v19i3/Pse...

"While N-methylamphetamine itself is a powerful decongestant, it is less desirable in a medical setting because of its severe side effects and addictive properties... Other side effects may include violent urges or, similarly, the urge to be successful in business or finance."

Re: The Uselessness of Phenylephrine

#28
post #17

I wonder how difficult it would be to get the restrictions on pseudoephedrine rolled back now that it appears unlikely they're accomplishing their original goal of limiting the methamphetamine supply. Concern (legitimate and otherwise) over ability to breathe is a popular topic in politics lately.

Very difficult. Regulations live on regardless of their negative effects because there's very little incentive to get rid of them.

Re: The Uselessness of Phenylephrine

#29

The Wikipedia article they link to [0] has a pretty long list of brandnames. Many of them are the "-D" version of whatever the thing is. Claritin-D, Zyrtec-D and so on. I think the version without the "-D" doesn't have Pseudoephedrine? [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoephedrine#Brand_names

In those cases, Claritin and Zyrtec are allergy medicines. The -D indicates that this allergy medicine comes along with a decongestant. The version without the -D will just be the allergy medicine.

Re: The Uselessness of Phenylephrine

#30
post #17

I wonder how difficult it would be to get the restrictions on pseudoephedrine rolled back now that it appears unlikely they're accomplishing their original goal of limiting the methamphetamine supply. Concern (legitimate and otherwise) over ability to breathe is a popular topic in politics lately.

Pessimistic me says not likely. Once these regulations are put in place, it is nearly impossible to get them removed. It takes a literal act of Congress. Now you have to spend useless energy against attacks of "soft on crime/drug abuse/etc" types of nonsense for suggesting removing an item from the list. Don't bother resorting to facts. Those are useless in the emotional knee jerk reactions that will ensue.
Post reply on HN