Patty pointed out to me that the FDA has ruled that phenylephrine-containing over-the-counter congestion remedies are “…probably effective, but it’s murky.”
I can remember my first experience with phenylephrine – back when the meth scare was just kicking into high gear and stores had started selling pseudoephedrine behind the counter. I quite often have nasal congestion problems, and Sudafed had always worked for me. So I grabbed a box of Sudafed PE, not realizing that it contained a different decongestant. (I was in a hurry, and I had naively assumed that Sudafed PE – the only Sudafed on the shelf – was traditional pseudoephedrine-containing Sudafed.) For all the good it did me, it may as well have been homeopathic nasal decongestant. It probably had some sort of effect on me, but it sure as heck didn’t clear my nose. After a day of suffering, I read the box more closely and noticed that the decongestant in the Sudafed PE was different. The next day I bought some pseudoephedrine.
So it doesn’t surprise me at all to hear researchers saying that
“If you have a stuffy nose, and you take an over-the-counter product containing phenylephrine, you will still not be able to breathe through your nose after you take it. That’s the bottom line,” Leslie Hendeles, a professor of pharmacy and pediatrics at the University of Florida, contended before the advisers met.
“There needs to be a dose-response study where you look a 10-, 25- and 50-milligram doses and determine what dose would give you a relief of your stuffy nose without side effects,” he said.
… or we could go back to selling a decongestant that has worked just fine for years, and for which a safe and effective dose is already known.
I know the feeling. Phenylephrine is horrible. Now I just wait in line at the pharmacy and buy pseudoephedrine. They always look at you funny when you ask for it though, like you’re making meth in your basement. And really, how much can I possibly make from a box containing 0.72 g of it? And has meth use gone down since the new requirements? I doubt it. Let’s just inconvenience law abiding citizens with colds while making the illusion of “fighting the war on drugs.”