Live data from Hacker News

The Uselessness of Phenylephrine

science.org

31–40 of 613 posts

Re: The Uselessness of Phenylephrine

#32
It is sad that society has gone into such a protectionist stance. In our great grandfathers day you could buy opiums and cocaine you name it. Now everything is so locked up heaven forbid someone abuses drugs. The problem with a useless drug like this is people won’t get the desired effect and start compounding more drugs into their system. Like what I had to do with an abscesses tooth. I don’t abuse drugs, I no longer drink and don’t smoke marijuana I don’t even drink coffee anymore. But when my tooth went bad all I was allowed was Acetaminophen and ibuprofen which didn’t even come close to touching the pain. So I took extra acetaminophen and ibuprofen anyways despite the risks out of desperation. Then I started using copious amounts of oral gel tooth numbing medicine which has benzocaine I believe which can also increase heart rate I believe. I was so desperate for any form of relief while I waited to get to the dentist that I was forced to abuse anything I could get for relief that one narcotic medication would have easily treated. I have often wished I could return unused narcotics I have been given to show the doctors “look I’m returning drugs I don’t have an abuse problem I only use them for pain control please continue being generous with them in the future”.

Re: The Uselessness of Phenylephrine

#33
post #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.

Specifically, drugs with -D indicate that they come with pseudoephedrine. In the US, they (like the non-PE version of Sudafed) are only available behind the pharmacy counter.

Re: The Uselessness of Phenylephrine

#34
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...

[deleted]

Re: The Uselessness of Phenylephrine

#35
phenylephrine is a great drug in hospital for sepsis patients, but as a nasal decongestant, it really is useless.

the "war on drugs" push to restrict pseudoephedrine created more problems than it's worth. "the new meth" has been even worse.

https://crimeandjusticenews.asu.edu/news/chemically-differen...

There's a really good Atlantic article about it as well (google "the new meth" Atlantic) but it's behind a paywall.

Re: The Uselessness of Phenylephrine

#37
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 r…

Every time she's mentioned, there's something to make me dislike Feinstein more than I already did. It does seem likely her strong opposition would be a high bar to clear, though as the oldest current senator, she may not be a factor for a long time.

Re: The Uselessness of Phenylephrine

#38
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.

WHY DO YOU WANT CHILDREN TO GET METH?--Opponents of rolling back restrictions on pseudoephedrine

But more seriously, the FDA ends up regulating something like 30% of the economy and getting them to deregulate something is near impossible

Re: The Uselessness of Phenylephrine

#39
It's interesting how many younger people in the US aren't even aware that the only useful decongestants are behind the counter. I assume they just think there isn't a useful treatment for the symptoms.

Re: The Uselessness of Phenylephrine

#40
post #39

It's interesting how many younger people in the US aren't even aware that the only useful decongestants are behind the counter. I assume they just think there isn't a useful treatment for the symptoms.

I remember when the over the counter stuff just seemed to stop working. I just assumed that something about my body changed. Took me a year or so to find that the ones behind the counter still worked very well.

I think I'm lucky, in that I don't really need too much help that often. I can only imagine if my sinuses were as bad as they were back in the day, though.

Post reply on HN