Safety alert
date: 1/17/2007
More teens abusing cough drugs
Abuse of a common cough suppressant may be increasing among teens. ConsumerReportsHealth.org advises monitoring their use of dextromethorphan, since it can cause reactions serious enough to send your teen to a hospital.
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CR Quick Take
Parents should monitor their children's use of cold remedies that contain the cough suppressant dextromethorphan. But the drug may not be worth having on hand in the first place, since evidence is weak that it helps relieve coughs caused by a cold or the flu.
A common cough suppressant was behind more than 12,000 emergency-room visits in 2004, according to a new government report, and researchers are warning that its abuse has significantly increased among teens.
Dextromethorphan, an ingredient found in more than 125 over-the-counter (OTC) cough and cold remedies, including Vicks 44 Cough Relief and Robitussin Honey Cough DM, is generally recognized as safe--when used as directed--by the Food and Drug Administration. However, even standard doses of the drug can cause agitation, muscle spasms, and allergic reactions, while misuse can bring hallucinations, rapid heartbeat, loss of coordination, and a ''high'' similar to psychotropic drugs like PCP.
In a report released in November 2006, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration identified dextromethorphan as a factor in 12,584 emergency-room visits in 2004. Nearly a third of those visits were for adverse reactions while using the product as labeled. But some 5,581 visits were attributed to non-medical use, and almost half of the patients who had abused the drug were ages 12 to 20.
A separate study on dextromethorphan, published in the December 2006 Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, found that calls to the California Poison Control System about abuse of the drug among preteens and teens jumped more than fifteenfold between 1999 and 2004.
Experts suggest that parents keep a close watch on products containing dextromethorphan in their homes. (To learn more about preventing OTC drug abuse by children, go to www.family.samhsa.gov/get/otcdrugs.aspx.) But you may not need to have it in your medicine cabinet in the first place.
Early in 2006 a panel of experts convened by the American College of Chest Physicians concluded that there is little or no evidence that OTC cough drugs help relieve the most common form of cough, caused by colds or flu. They recommended against giving the drugs to children ages 14 or younger because the evidence was particularly weak for that age group and because children are especially susceptible to side effects. Instead of using cough suppressants, they suggest trying other remedies, such as a drug for postnasal drip, which causes most cold-related coughs. For more information, see How to treat a cough.
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