Re "Teens try cough medicine for a high," Dec. 5
I am a physician who cares for hundreds of patients who have severe and chronic cough. The American College of Chest Physicians recently issued clinical practice guidelines indicating that most over-the-counter medications don't work. However, dextromethorphan is one of the few medicines that, in fact, do work to suppress cough, in the appropriate doses. Now it seems that the government is seeking to regulate the distribution of dextromethorphan because of thrill-seeking, overdosing teens. Didn't it also try, unsuccessfully, to restrict the distribution of pseudoephedrine as a result of methamphetamine abuse?
