Kid's Drug Secrets

Posted By : torque, Posted On : Apr 30 2008, 06:52 AM

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Kids' Drug Secrets Reporting Jim Osman PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) ― It is a legal drug that might be found in your medicine cabinet. You use it to alleviate cough and cold symptoms but some teens are abusing it and getting high. Our I-Team Investigative Reporter Jim Osman discovered this teen drug secret after an impassioned plea from one Bucks County mother. The videos are all over YouTube showing teens acting goofy. At first it may look like they are just fooling around, but the more you watch, the more bizarre it gets. Even in their deluded state teens know what their parents don't. They know about a common drug that could be in your medicine cabinet. The active ingredient in some common cold and cough medications is dextromethorphan or DXM. That's what makes kids high. It's hard for Bucks County mom Lynn Chrupalyk as she looks at photos of her daughter teenaged Hillary. "My daughter has always been a happy kid, very creative," said Lynn. Her little girl who used to play with stuffed animals and sit on Santa's lap grew into a teen harboring a dark secret. When I asked her, "What happened to that little girl," Lynn become emotional. "I don't know, I think getting involved with the wrong crowd of children," she said. Lynn, who waits tables at a Bristol restaurant, got a startling phone call recently. Her daughter Hillary had been arrested for stealing a Robitussin, a cough medication, at a Croydon pharmacy. "Even the police at the police station were scratching their heads like what's the sense of Robitussin," said Lynn trying to understand how a cough medicine could get kids high. But Hillary was hooked on it says her mom. Cough medicines with DXM when taken in large enough doses can produce hallucinations. Lynn, who is a single mom, feared for her daughter's safety and put her in drug rehab. "It just made me think if I didn't have her put away, she could've died if I waited another day or two, you know she could have overdosed." 18-year-old Derrick has been in DayTop's drug rehab facility in Mendham, New Jersey for eight months. He too got addicted to DXM. "I started involuntary muscle control, I couldn't control what I was saying, blacked out," that's how Derrick describes the high. "It turned me into like a monster," said Derrick. "I thought that only it was hurting myself, I realize it was hurting everybody around me," he said. He said his cough medicine addiction tore his father and mother apart. "He having to see his son all tripped out, all doped up and everything. I'm sure it made him sad," said Derrick. Ian Gershman is a drug counselor at DayTop. He says those YouTube videos show obvious signs there's an addiction problem. But there may be other signs that may not be as obvious. "Sometimes we see stealing money or articles that the kids own like the iPods, or the Gameboys may start to disappear. They may start to sell them," said Gershman. For Hillary, her DXM drug craze came to a head on Valentine's Day. That's when Lynn had to show her daughter just how much she loved her, by forcefully committing her to drug rehab. "She broke my heart and I told her that. Now she understands", says Lynn. There are more than 100 'over the counter medications' that contain DXM. And unlike some drugs that are placed behind the counter in pharmacies, cough medications containing DXM are placed on shelves for teens to freely purchase. If you have any of these products in your house, a good piece of advice: Don't store them in the medicine cabinet.

Oregon is No. 1 in legal drug abuse

Posted By : C20H25N3O, Posted On : Apr 22 2008, 02:31 AM

Oregon is No. 1 in legal drug abuse
When it comes to prescription and over-the-counter drug abuse, our state tops the charts


Oregonians lead the nation in the abuse of prescription and over the counter drugs and are showing up at Asante's chemical recovery center in much larger numbers than users of meth, cocaine and heroin combined. Teens are helping expand that toll.

That was the sobering message delivered by Dr. Darryl S. Inaba, clinical manager of Genesis of Asante Health System in Central Point, speaking to 280 substance abuse professionals Friday at its third annual educational conference.

In raw numbers, Oregon as a whole ranks eighth in the nation for diversion and abuse of such drugs, while the state's teens rank fourth in the nation, Inaba said, adding that, viewed as a percentage of the state's small population, these groups are probably No. 1 in the nation.

"All studies show that Oregon is a hotbed of illicit drugs and it centers in the rural and suburban populations, like Medford. It could be the lack of activities, people maybe getting bored with what they've got, not appreciating the natural wonders," said Inaba, adding that the problem is exacerbated because 80 percent of the state's population lives near the I-5 corridor and that's where the drugs travel.

Alcohol is still the number one substance abused by those entering treatment but about 40 percent are there to get over prescription and over the counter (OTC) drugs, Inaba noted.

If they're regulated by prescription, how do abusers get them? It's not hard, he says. While some states are trying to start databases showing who's taking what drug prescribed by what doctor and refilled by what pharmacist how many times, the process is very labor intensive and often blocked by privacy protections in HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which bars divulging of health information, even to other doctors, without the patient's written consent.

The Internet, as well as new "compassionate pain management" laws in recent years have also made it easier to get powerful painkillers, he said.

As a result, patients here can get prescriptions from any number of doctors, Inaba said. Tracking the number of refills is also hard to control. So, Inaba urges doctors to use better diagnostics on patients, making sure they need the drugs, chiefly painkillers, that they're asking for.

"The opportunity for addicts to manipulate the system is pretty good, if you don't monitor them," he said, in an interview. "Most doctors don't. They should have patients bring their pill bottle and count how many got used."

Prescription drugs spread illicitly when patients don't use up all their prescription and an addict offers them a handsome price, he said. On the street, the two most popular prescription painkillers are pricey — $3 to $5 a pill for Vicodin and $15 to $25 a pill for OxyContin. Ritalin or Adderall and cough syrup with DXM (dextromethorphan) were the third- and fourth-most abused licit drugs.

Increased use is reported in the region for Cylert, Soma, Darvon, methadone, Subutex, Suboxone, Viagra, Benadryl, Dimetapp, Singlet, Nyquil, Primatene and Sudafed. Inaba handed out a long list of increasingly popular sedative-hypnotics and OTC depressants with street names like roofies, blue heaven, double trouble, green weenies, mother's little helpers and 'ludes.

The valley's Meth Task Force has been successful in lowering meth use in the last few years, so now meth addicts have dropped to about half the numbers of prescription drug addicts presenting at Genesis, Inaba said.

However, women and girls choose prescription drugs in larger numbers than men and boys, said Inaba, noting, "I always thought there was no gender difference but it's the drug of choice for them, more acceptable than meth or other street drugs."

In addition, detection and treatment is made harder by the fact that 75 percent of hardcore drug users in the U.S. are able to hold down jobs.

Teens, too, are getting into the picture and Inaba cautions parents to hide prescription drugs because teen friends visiting the house will often head for the bathroom, "grazing" for prescription drugs they can steal.

Among teens, Vicodin has been abused by 18 percent, while OxyContin, Ritalin or Adderall and cough syrup have been abused by 10 percent.

Inaba told the professionals that Americans spend more than $100 billion a year on prescription drugs and $25 billion to buy them illegally. Such drugs are 30 percent of the U.S. drug problem. When considered in cost and deaths, he said, drug addiction is the nations' number one health problem.

(Source)

Narconon Warns of DXM Abuse in the Military

Posted By : C20H25N3O, Posted On : Apr 22 2008, 02:29 AM

Narconon Warns of DXM Abuse in the Military

Soldiers Getting High on ‘Legal’ Drug

Atlanta, GA 4/10/2008 04:49 PM GMT (FINDITT)

Narconon Drug Rehab in Georgia receives many calls from people seeking help for substance abuse. But the number of calls received after a warning issued by Narconon Drug Rehab on over-the-counter cold medicine was shocking.

One lady was very worried. “I am 36 years old, have a nice family, great children,” she stated. “I started taking Coricidin for a cold, and haven’t stopped. I am worried because I get actual cravings for it. I shake when I pass the medicine aisle in the grocery store. I can stop myself from taking it for a while, then I just give in.”

Dextromethorphan, or "DXM" is an ingredient found in many over-the-counter cold medicines. However, DXM can produce a high similar to LSD. When taken in excess, it produces hallucinations, “out of body states”, dizziness, and vivid dreams. It is found in over 140 over-the-counter medications, Coricidin being the most popular. Any product that says “DM” or “Tuss” on the label may contain DXM.

“I was in charge of training 1,000 recruits,” stated another caller. “I was in the military and the amount of Coricidin abuse I saw was appalling. Trash cans are filled with empty Coricidin packets. The pharmacies in our area are always out of Coricidin and other cold relief products. The problem is that it is not an illegal drug, and won’t show up on any drug tests. The recruits ‘robotrip’ on Coricidin and don’t get caught.”

He went on to state that DXM is highly addictive and his wife, who was also in the military, had to go to drug rehab for her DXM addiction. “I want to help raise awareness of the damage DXM can cause,” he stated. “It is a very dangerous drug, and not enough attention or education is being given to its abuse, especially in the military.”

An overdose of DXM produces a drug high. It can also produce a variety of health problems:
-rapid heart beat
-lethargy
-high blood pressure
-kidney damage
-liver damage
-seizures
-death.

Emergency room staff are very familiar with DXM overdoses, as waves of young people who are overdosing on it are admitted to local hospitals. “We see this all the time,” stated one ERT member responding to a call after finding out that the addict had overdosed on cough medicine. Estimates are that over two million teens in the United States have abused DXM products to get high. Often, these teens are finding information about DXM on the internet.

For more information on drug addiction rehabilitation, over the counter drug abuse, or drug education, call Narconon of Georgia at 1-877-413-3073.


(Source)

Robotripping' grows among younger teens

Posted By : C20H25N3O, Posted On : Apr 22 2008, 02:27 AM

Robotripping' grows among younger teens

Candice Ferrette
The Journal News

Francine Krulak of Pelham got a startling call from the school nurse one morning two weeks ago.

Her 14-year-old son's blood pressure was skyrocketing, his pulse racing and he was "out of it," the nurse told her. "You have to come get him," Krulak recalled the nurse saying.

The worried mother jumped into her car and called the pediatrician on her way to the school. Her son, whom she doesn't want to name for fear of embarrassing him, later admitted he had taken 50 liquid gel caps of a common cold medicine to get high.

"I had no idea. He's 14 years old. I didn't think he would ever be doing something like that," Krulak said.

Her son went to the emergency room and is now getting counseling. Krulak now knows the practice is called "robotripping" - getting high on cold and cough medicines, such as Robitussin - and has gained popularity among teens and "tweens" in her relatively affluent community.

In the first 3 1/2 months of this year, 10 adolescents have been taken to local hospitals for detoxification after abusing cough medicines, said Dr. Thomas Caraccio, a toxicologist with the Long Island and Westchester Regional Poison and Drug Information Center.

Now, bans on some cough and cold medicines are being considered by Westchester County, some states and Congress. If Westchester enacts restrictions, it would become the third county in New York to have them, after Suffolk and Nassau on Long Island.

The active ingredient in the medicines is the cough suppressant dextromethorphan, or DXM, which can cause out-of-body sensations and hallucinations if ingested in large quantities. Public health officials say children as young as 11 years old are looking to the local drugstore or the bathroom medicine chest for the inexpensive, smokeless, odorless and legal over-the-counter drug.

Excessive amounts of DXM have caused vomiting, seizures, high blood pressure, blackouts, irregular heartbeat and even death.

Hospitalizations in Westchester for cold-medicine overdoses have quadrupled since 2000 among 13- to 19-year-olds, according to data from the Regional Poison and Drug Information Center, which fields voluntary calls from hospital emergency rooms.

That number is likely to be even higher because many cases go unreported, Caraccio said.

"This is a trend that's been happening in a lot of areas. This just shows you it's something that's happening in Westchester, too," Caraccio said.

At times, they are pairing it with other substances, such as beer, substance-abuse counselors say.

"They will go into a drugstore and buy them out of all the cough and cold medicine," said Dr. Abby Wasserman of St. Vincent's Westchester, a drug rehabilitation and mental hospital in Harrison.

"They'll chug-a-lug several bottles of the cough syrup and a lot of times take it with other alcohol - which is very dangerous," said Wasserman, who gives educational talks to parents and teachers on over-the-counter drugs.

DXM, a synthetic drug similar to morphine, is a narcotic with addictive potential. For some adolescents, it is a segue to prescription drug abuse in later years. Both over-the-counter and prescription medications have been on the rise among young people, Wasserman said.

"Mostly it's because they think it is safer than the street drugs like marijuana and acid," Wasserman said. "Parents need to know that the problem is right in their medicine cabinets."

A Westchester survey found that 5 percent to 9 percent of 3,241 middle-schoolers reported having used cough syrup or cold medicine to get high, said Student Assistance Services, which provides drug and alcohol counseling to the county's school districts.

Educators added robotripping to the drug- and alcohol-abuse program held at local schools for parents, teachers and police, said Tom Meier, director of the county's Drug Prevention and STOP DWI Program.

Westchester lawmakers are considering enacting a law that would limit the sale of over-the-counter cough and cold medicines with DXM. One proposal would ban the sale to anyone under 18; another might limit the number of bottles a person could buy at one time.

Nilesh Patel, owner of Trottas Pharmacy on Halstead Avenue in Harrison, said he hasn't noticed teenagers buying up cold or cough medicines. The store's inventory program identifies when shelves need to restocked every time an item is purchased.

"If someone were to come in and buy three or four bottles at a time, a red flag would definitely go up," Patel said.

But, he said, he would comply with any county legislation that might require putting products with DXM behind the counter.

It may mean retraining his staff and reorganizing his store, as he had to do when a requirement to put Sudafed behind counters took effect three years ago because it can be used to make crystal meth.

"Even though it would be a burden, I would do it for the safety of the community. ... I'm sure some stores just don't have the space behind the counter to put the equivalent of 8 feet of store shelves back there," Patel said.

Krulak, the Pelham mother, said that since her son's episode with robotripping, she has spoken to other parents in the area who have had similar experiences. She was surprised to find out how many other children have tried doing what her son did. She would definitely support any kind of legislation, although she also thinks there are other places where teens are going to get drugs, such as the Internet.

"I caught him smoking pot in the house, and I told him he couldn't do that. He thought he was doing a good thing by doing something legal (by taking cough medicine)," Krulak said. "It's legal, but it's still dangerous," she said.

(sourece)

Cough syrup too dangerous for toddlers

Posted By : Tyutchev, Posted On : Apr 9 2008, 07:09 AM

news.com.au

QUOTE

Cough syrup too dangerous for toddlers - expert By Tamara McLean January 18, 2008 05:01pm Article from: AAP PARENTS should be warned not to give cough syrups to toddlers on the back of a US ruling on the "potentially life-threatening" side effects, a leading paediatrician says. US health authorities have issued advice that children under two should not be given over-the-counter cough and cold medicines because they are too dangerous. Rare cases of deaths, convulsions and rapid heart rates have been reported in this age group, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said in its warning. Asked if a similar change should be considered in Australia, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) said such medications were more strongly regulated here and could only be supplied for use in children with the direct involvement of a pharmacist. But Professor Colin Robertson, director of respiratory medicine at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne, said the drug regulator was "dodging the issue" and urged it to follow the lead of the FDA. "These medications are dangerous in these young babies, that is becoming increasing clear, but parents are still using them," Prof Robertson said. "It would be appropriate for Australia to make a similar recommendation to stop it from happening as soon as possible." A report released last year by the US Centre for Disease Control documented over 1500 emergency hospitalisations of young children who had suffered adverse effects from cough medications. Three of the children died. The FDA followed with preliminary cautions and today issued advice against the use "because serious and potentially life-threatening side effects can occur". It also reissued previous warnings to carefully follow dosing directions, only use one product at a time, and only use measuring spoons made specifically for medicines. The agency is yet to rule on whether widely sold medicines, made by companies such as Wyeth and Johnson & Johnson, are appropriate in children aged two to 11. Responding to the ruling, a TGA spokeswoman said the medications were more regulated in Australia. "In contrast to the USA, sale of most cough and cold medicines in Australia is restricted to pharmacies and many can only be supplied for use in children with the direct involvement of a pharmacist," a spokeswoman said. "While there are 23 cough and cold medicines registered with the TGA that can be sold from outlets other than pharmacies, most of these medicines do not have dosage instructions for use in children under two years of age."

Kids Flaunt Cough-Syrup Abuse Online!

Posted By : torque, Posted On : Mar 23 2008, 03:54 PM

QUOTE

(CBS) It's legal, easy to get and probably in your home right now. But kids are getting high off of it - and plenty of videos online show that. On YouTube, video after video shows kids flaunting their highs, CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller reports. Kids saying: "My brain is like whoo," "I'm like flying right now," and "I'm tripping so hard," are all on the same drug: DXM. DXM is dextromethorphan, the cough-suppressant found in more than 100 over-the-counter cough medicines. Today's parents may warn their kids about marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy, but when it comes to DXM, most parents are clueless … or worse. "There's a mix of 'oh, it's not that bad,' or actual relief: 'oh, my kid's just getting high on cough medicine!'" said Steve Pasierb of Partnership for Drug-Free America. It's called robo-tripping, skittling, tussin or triple-c. One-in-10 kids admits to it, and while parents think drugs start with high school, the average age first-time use is between 12 and 13. "It was cheap, it was fun, and it was easy to get," said one teen named Derrick. He started abusing DXM at 16. Then he added marijuana, ecstasy, cocaine and heroin within a year. "It'll ruin your life cause that's all you'll think about," said Laura, who used for just a few months. "Everyone noticed me when I was on it. I just wanted to be noticed I guess," she said. Laura and Derrick are currently in rehab, where 60 percent of the kids have abused cold medicine. Some blame the Internet for spreading the word. "Kids go online and Google, 'cheap way to get high,' ... they're met with literally thousands of sites," Pasierb said. And the sites are a crash course in Drug Abuse 101. There are even calculators to comute doseage based on a weight for a tailor-made high. It can be eight to 12 times the recommended amount. But parents can fight back. # Know how much cold medicine you have in the house. # Don't leave it sitting in a bathroom cabinet. # Tell your kids, despite what they may see on the Internet, there is no safe way to get high. "I lost my family, I lost a lot of my capabilities," Derrick said. "I lost time. I lost my childhood." And adolescence is tough enough without drugs.

Source

Insane Anti-Drug Laws

Posted By : torque, Posted On : Mar 17 2008, 04:02 AM

QUOTE

It’s selling itself as a 21st-century playground, a world capital of tourism offering beach resorts to challenge the Caribbean, Parisian art and Hong Kong-style shopping in an environment that’s “safer than Singapore”. But draconian antidrug laws are undermining Dubai’s carefully cultivated fun-loving image. Travel there with a bottle of cough mixture and you could catch a cold. Last week, the emirate’s authorities quietly released Cat Le-Huy, a 31-year-old tourist who was held for six weeks in the central prison at Al-Wathba after customs officials found melatonin pills - used to beat jet lag - and a speck of dirt that the authorities declared was hashish in his luggage. He was lucky. Last month, the Radio 1 DJ Raymond Bingham - aka Grooverider - was jailed for four years for possessing 2.16 grams of cannabis. Whether he will serve the entire sentence depends on the whim of Dubai’s judiciary: the American record producer Dallas Austin, sentenced to four years when ecstasy was found in his possession, and Londoner Keith Brown, who received the same term after 0.003 grams of cannabis (an amount smaller than a pinhead) was discovered lodged in the tread of his shoes, were recently freed in prison amnesties. Five other Britons, along with 19 French nationals and an Italian tourist, have been imprisoned for weeks or months for the alleged possession of even microscopic amounts of narcotics, but it’s not just recreational drug users who are at risk. “What many travellers may not realise is that they can be deemed to be in possession of such banned substances if they can be detected in their urine or bloodstream, or in tiny trace amounts on their person,” says Catherine Wolthuizen of Fair Trials International. “We even have reports of the imprisonment of a Swiss man for ‘possession’ of three poppy seeds on his clothing after he ate a bread roll at Heathrow. “We have seen a steep increase in such cases over the past 18 months. Customs authorities are using highly sensitive new equipment to conduct extremely thorough searches on travellers, and if they find any amount – no matter how minute – it will be enough to attract a mandatory four-year prison sentence.” On the list of substances that travellers can be jailed for possessing are dozens of compounds used in over-the-counter remedies. These include Benylin children’s coughs and colds formula, which contains dextromethorphan, and Tixylix children’s cough syrup. Other products on a blacklist of more than 300 substances include the popular antidiarrhoea treatment Lomotil, cough treatments Coldex and Robitussin, and antidepressants Valium and Prozac. Possession of any of these without a prescription or an explanatory letter from your GP could lead to arrest and imprisonment. And despite the fact that more than 800,000 British tourists will visit Dubai this year, none of the tour operators contacted by The Sunday Times offers information about what medicines can be taken into the emirate. “We would not put detailed banned substances on the website as this would be too much information to digest,” Kuoni said. “We do, however, refer clients, both in the brochure and links on the website, to the Foreign Office’s website.” In its entry on Dubai, the Foreign Office advises: “Some over-the-counter medicines, such as codeine, are illegal without a doctor’s prescription. In some cases, you will be allowed to take these medicines in, providing they are in their original packaging and, in addition to the prescription, you provide a note from your GP outlining what the medicine is required for.” The definitive list can be found only as a file buried deep in the pharmacists’ section of the United Arab Emirates ministry of health’s website, but is it reasonable to expect families to ask GPs for a letter to cover a bottle of Tixylix bought in Boots? “Along with the international community, Dubai has a clear policy regarding drug trafficking, smuggling and possession, and this is one of the reasons the emirate has one of the lowest crime rates in the world,” says Ian Scott of Dubai’s department of tourism. “This, in turn, is one of the many reasons it is such an attractive holiday destination.” But Tixylix? “The message is clear,” Scott says. “Don’t take illegal drugs, and if you’re on medication, bring a prescription to prove it. We have hundreds of thousands of tourists every year, and the number stopped with illegal substances is infinitesimal.” If you are one of that number, you could end up behind bars for weeks, months or even the mandatory four years, so it’s probably best to leave the Tixylix at home.

SOURCE
Might want to rethink those vacation plans, especially if you've got a cough. "Sorry I committed that crime, but I was high on three poppy seeds ...."

Generation "Rx"

Posted By : torque, Posted On : Mar 14 2008, 05:56 PM

QUOTE

March 12, 2008 -- Washington, DC – Today U.S. Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (D-DE), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime & Drugs and Caucus on International Narcotics Control, held a joint hearing entitled “Generation Rx: The Abuse of Prescription and Over-the-Counter Drugs.” The hearing focused on the alarming trends associated with abuse rates of prescription and over-the-counter drugs, and the need to robustly fund drug education and prevention programs. “It’s not just the illegal street drugs that we parents and policymakers have to worry about. Prescription drugs can also be dangerously addictive and lethal,” said Sen. Biden. “We’ve got to fundamentally change the attitudes of parents and teens when it comes to abusing medicines. There is a grave misperception that just because these drugs are legal when properly prescribed and monitored, they are always safe—in any dose. That is simply not true.” Seven of the top eleven drugs most commonly abused by high school seniors are prescription or over-the-counter drugs, reflecting a disturbing national trend. Vicodin and Amphetamines now rank up there with marijuana as the top three most commonly abused drugs among 12th graders. And, in 2006 more people started abusing prescription pain relievers than any other drug. “Take my word for it: trends matter. We’ve got to get a handle on these abuse rates before they get worse,” said Sen. Biden. “This is clearly a national problem that is going to require a coordinated, national solution.” The hearing featured expert witnesses Dr. Len Paulozzi, medical epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Dr. Nora Volkow, Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Steve Pasierb, President and CEO of The Partnership for a Drug-Free America, and Derek Clark, Director of the Clinton Substance Abuse Council in Clinton, IA, testified about teen and parent attitudes associated with medicine abuse, and community prevention efforts. The final witness, Misty Fetko, is a registered nurse who tragically lost her son Carl Hennon in 2003, due to an overdose of a combination of over-the-counter and prescription pain relievers. Sen. Biden also urged his colleagues to support the Dextromethorphan Abuse Reduction Act (S. 2274), which he introduced in October 2007. This legislation aims to curb the alarming rise in medicine abuse, including teens’ misuse of cough and cold medicines containing Dextromethorphan (DXM).

Source

Will Dxm Become Outlawed?

Posted By : torque, Posted On : Mar 6 2008, 03:52 PM

THIS TOPIC IS A COMBINATION OF TWO RELATED THREADS. The second topic , "DXM May Become Outlawed", was authored by jesric

There's been an undercurrent of similar claims lately:

QUOTE

New York, NY March 6, 2008 -- Here's some surprising news: The most effective medicines for a cough are NOT the ones which are being marketed as cough treatments. In the latest Johns Hopkins Lung Disorders Health Alert (www.johnshopkinshealthalerts.com), their pulmonary specialists summarize the kiy findings you need to know from the latest American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) comprehensive guidelines for treating various types of cough. COUGH/COLDS THE #1 REASON FOR A VISIT TO THE DOCTOR Cough is the number one reason people seek medical attention. The new ACCP guidelines state that many of the key ingredients in commonly taken over the counter cough and cold medications DO NOT effectively quiet coughs that are caused by the common cold. The new ACCP guidelines stress that most over-the-counter cough expectorants or suppressants, including cough syrups and cough drops, just DON'T work. Instead, certain older allergy and pain medicines are MORE EFFECTIVE for treating coughs, even though they are not advertised as cough busters. A COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW OF STUDIES ON COUGHS AND THE COMMON COLD After reviewing studies done from 1980 to 2004 on cough and the common cold, an ACCP expert panel found that guaifenesin -- an expectorant found in such popular cough medicines as Robitussin and Mucinex -- is NOT effective in controlling cough caused by the common cold. Guaifenesin is supposed to thin mucus and make it easier to cough up phlegm. Of the four studies, which compared guaifenesin with a placebo, two showed that the cough medicine was effective, but two showed it was not. The ACCP has concluded that this was NOT enough evidence to say that the drug is effective for treating coughs due to colds. OTHER POSSIBLE COUGH AND COLD TREATMENTS? Two other common cough treatments, dextromethorphan and codeine, also DID NOT pass muster for treating coughs caused by colds, according to the ACCP guidelines. The experts found that the dose of dextromethorphan used in over-the-counter brands is ineffective. Even large doses of codeine didn't work. SOME RELIEF FOR CHRONIC BRONCHITIS SUFFERERS Although neither drug is effective for coughs from the common cold, both drugs may help people with chronic bronchitis get short-term relief from coughing, the panel noted. OTHER POPULAR COLD TREATMENTS SCRUTINIZED The ACCP has also found that the ever-popular zinc and echinacea were also ineffective for coughs due to colds. SO WHAT DOES WORK FOR COUGHS? The panel members didn't merely knock popular cough remedies off their pedestal. They did find some over-the-counter products that can help to calm coughs -- but not the ones you would expect. Antihistamine/decongestant medications that contain brompheniramine and sustained-release pseudoephedrine can be effective, they found. These medications contain older antihistamines that can make you drowsy. However, newer non-sedating antihistamines don't work for reducing cough, the panel concluded. Another treatment to try is the pain reliever naproxen (Aleve), which the panel said has been shown to decrease the severity and frequency of coughing. ---- This article was excerpted from the annual review The Johns Hopkins White Paper: Lung Disorders: Johns Hopkins White Paper Lung Disorders

New Cough Care Guidelines
Perhaps we should all start writing testimonials:
"I was hacking my head off, but an 8 ouncer did the trick!"
"Best bet for a cough — Agent Lemon!"
"Delsym and Robogels work for me!"

OTCs Spell Danger for Children

Posted By : torque, Posted On : Mar 1 2008, 06:57 PM

QUOTE

SPRINGDALE - Drug abuse among teenagers and younger children can begin no further away than the family medicine cabinet. Chugging a half bottle of over-the-counter cough medication can produce a euphoric high, similar to an illegal hallucinogen, a national drug education expert said Thursday in Springdale. Over-the-counter cough medication is cheap, available and the high it produces could fool a drug dog or drug test, said Isabel Burk, director of Health Network for professional training and consultation on prevention, safety and health issues. About 100 educators, nurses, counselors and drug treatment professionals participated in a pair of seminars on abuse of over-the-counter medications Thursday at the Jones Center for Families. The seminars were presented by the MidSouth Prevention Institute and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. The alcohol content in over-the-counter cough and cold medications isn't the culprit. The active ingredient in cough syrup that produces the high is dextromethorphan, or DXM, which Burk said is a legal ingredient approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a cough suppressant. The flavor of the syrup, particularly grape and cherry, has also improved, making it easier to swallow. The high can take effect in 20 minutes and last two to six hours, producing euphoria, often accompanied by conversation. There is a loss of the sense of time and surroundings or a major distortion of all senses and spatial relationships. There also can be strong physical side effects, including sweating, vomiting, blackouts, respiratory distress, seizure and even coma. Abuse of over-the-counter medications isn't new although the abuse has received media attention in recent months. "This stuff is old as the hills," she said. "The only thing that gets our attention is a high profile tragedy." She noted a cover story in People magazine three years ago about a 16-year-old girl who died of an overdose of a cough and cold medication. A University of Michigan study in 2006 noted one in 14 high school seniors reported using a cold or cough medicine to get high in the previous year. Statistics for 2007 are expected to be released soon, she said. Emergency room visits involving dextromethorphan was a contributing factor in an estimated 12,584 cases in 2004, and 5,581 of those visits were due to nonmedical use, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Of those nonmedical factors, almost half involved patients ages 12 to 20. "Over-the-counter drugs are still medicine ... some are powerful and potent and that is not bad," she said. "Drug abuse is not a moral issue. It is a health and safety issue."

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I couldn't help finding this a bit ironic, despite the tragic tale:

QUOTE

"This stuff is old as the hills," she said. "The only thing that gets our attention is a high profile tragedy." She noted a cover story in People magazine three years ago about a 16-year-old girl who died of an overdose of a cough and cold medication.

Three years ago — I had no idea!

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