The Uselessness of Phenylephrine
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The Uselessness of Phenylephrine
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Re: The Uselessness of Phenylephrine
#2I've certainly found it useless, and when I need a decongestant I make certain I'm getting actual pseudoephedrine. The 12 and 24 hour slow-release versions are fantastic. I've never done a proper blind trial on myself, but I feel quite certain that I could tell the difference.
I suppose people must be buying it, and given how strong placebo effects are in general I guess it's doing something for them.
Re: The Uselessness of Phenylephrine
#3It is even easier to make
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methcathinone
from pseudoephedrine. You can just oxidize PE with potassium permanganate and purify the product... No need to risk blowing yourself up the way you would making methamphetamine.
Re: The Uselessness of Phenylephrine
#4I've certainly found it useless, and when I need a decongestant I make certain I'm getting actual pseudoephedrine. The 12 and 24 hour slow-release versions are fantastic. I've never done a proper blind trial on myself, but I feel quite certain that I could tell the difference. I suppose people must be buying it, and given how strong placebo effects are in general I guess it's doing something for them.
Same here. Actual Sudafed works for me and anything else I think generally only tends to work with whatever NSAID they bundle with it.
Re: The Uselessness of Phenylephrine
#5The 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
Re: The Uselessness of Phenylephrine
#6Levo-methamphetamine is a legal decongestant BTW
Re: The Uselessness of Phenylephrine
#7A1 headline right there. Not clickbait, but right to the point
Re: The Uselessness of Phenylephrine
#8If you get the chance, go read all of his (Derek Lowe) blog posts about things he refuses to work with. Highly entertaining read.
Re: The Uselessness of Phenylephrine
#9My assumption has always been: people know pseudoephedrine works, so that's what they want to buy, but you can no longer sell pseudoephedrine over the counter. However, you can offer phenylephrine, which still lets you reasonably name the drug "Sudafed PE" or whatever. Customer browses the shelves, sees "PE" in the drug name, this triggers a vague impression that it contains pseudoephedrine and thus will actually work well.
Re: The Uselessness of Phenylephrine
#10If you get the chance, go read all of his (Derek Lowe) blog posts about things he refuses to work with. Highly entertaining read.
Thanks for pointing out the author, the headline is not news to me and I would have passed on reading it.