Child Wellness: Cough medicines and teens
Recently the FDA is looking into the over the counter cough medicine to require a doctors prescription. Why? It has something to do to keeping teenagers safe.
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Recent reports are indicating that teenagers are over dosing on over the counter products that the FDA is targeting.
DXM, short for dextromethorphan is found in many over-the-counter cough suppressant products, such as Nyquil, Robitussin and Tylenol Cold Tablets. When taken in large doses and when mixed with other drugs, it can create a state of euphoria.
"In particular, there can be cardiac side effects, arrhythmias, tachycardias, racing heart rate," said Dr. Manny Cirenza.
Because a growing number of teenagers abusing it, the Drug Enforcement Administration asked the FDA to look at how the government could curb abuse of DXM, one idea was to require a prescription for the medication. Recently the FDA ruled that DXM did not pose enough of a threat to the general public health, that it will remain over the counter and it will be left to each state to decide if it will be a prescription-only status.
If you do live with a teenager, it's critically important to keep an eye on your own personal medicine cabinets but if your teenage interacts with older adults, relatives, especially grandparents, it is also important to keep an eye on the theirs.
"Take a good inventory, most of us are surprised when we take a look at where we keep the drugs at home and we find we have stuff that is many, many years old and be careful about grandparents took, they tend to hold on to things and have things sitting around there for a long time and that becomes another place kids can get a hold of dangerous things," Cirenza said.
When considering a cough suppressant with DXM in it, many pediatricians do not recommend it for various reasons.
"From our point of view we tend to see more side effects than the resolution of the symptoms. In particular, the young children, talking about infants, toddlers, five, six, seven years of age, I discourage the use, "said Cirenza.