A loophole in FDA processes means older drugs like the ones in oral decongestants weren’t properly tested. Here’s how we learned the most popular one doesn’t work
In 2005, federal law compelled retailers nationwide to move pseudoephedrine, sold as Sudafed, from over-the-counter (OTC) to behind it, so as to combat its use in making illicit methamphetamine. This move changed the formulas of cough and cold medicines in the U.S… It also led me and my colleague Leslie Hendeles to prove that pseudoephedrine’s replacement, oral phenylephrine, was ineffective as a decongestant.
We petitioned the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) twice, yet it took the agency more than a decade and a half to act on our findings.
In September, an agency advisory panel finally agreed with our conclusion that this compound did little to quell congestion and recommended that products containing it be pulled from shelves. If FDA acts on this recommendation, oral phenylephrine could be the first OTC drug approved under the agency’s “monograph” process to be discontinued. But in the meantime, millions of people have been trusting the FDA’s OTC regulatory process to ensure that medications work, but instead have been wasting money for nearly two decades on ones that don’t.
Specifically that phenylephrine doesn’t work, not all oral decongestants.
Also specifically when phenylephrine is taken orally, the FDA did not examine its use in nasal sprays which are still considered effective for short term use
https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-safety-and-availability/fda-clarifies-results-recent-advisory-committee-meeting-oral-phenylephrine
https://www.bu.edu/articles/2023/phenylephrine-cold-medicine-decongestant-ineffective/
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/fda-panel-says-common-counter-decongestant-phneylephrine-doesnt-work-rcna104424
Fuck Sudafed PE, but I’ll add some irl experience to the science:
Had about 2 weeks of painful congestion that kept me awake all night almost a year ago now (it was so bad my sleeping brain thought I was being choked and would force wake me up) and tried PE because my local pharmacy was totally out of regular Sudafed. It didn’t work, shocker. But then they suggested I try the nasal spray with it, and I almost didn’t listen to them.
Not gonna say it was some magic drug or that it was even in the same ballpark as actual Sudafed, but it DID make it so I could move around and actually get to the pharmacy further away that had real Sudafed, and that’s more than the PE PILLS can say or do
Isn’t phenylephrine currently all the OTC oral decongestants? I checked my medicine cabinet and all the cold medicine that I have that claims to also be a decongestant uses it.
Just do c/adhd they have all the strongest “medicine”
Didn’t you hear? Massive shortage on. Most of us can’t get our medicine. (And it’s not “medicine” jackass. It’s the difference between me being “employable, constructive member of society” and a “disaster in human form.”)
You mean a schedule II drug which is only permitted because it has such extreme relief of the condition it treats?
Sure do.
Sucks that people abuse it or are only using it for “weightloss” but for some people who actually have adhd being off/on those medications is basically like bowling with a bouncy ball vs bowling with a regular bowling ball and the gutter guards up.
Just have to hope you’re bowling in the right lane but at least you’ll be bowling effectively
You could always get ‘mormon tea’ which is high in ephedrine.