Winnipeg nurse's lawsuit against top drug companies claims they marketed decongestants that don't work
Winnipeg nurse's lawsuit against top drug companies claims they marketed decongestants that don't work
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Eori, who has worked as a nurse for 33 years, purchased some of the drugs mentioned for herself and her family more than eight times per year under the impression that they would be sufficient to treat nasal congestion, the suit says.
What the hell?? Is it normal for people to be that congested that often?
I don't recall ever needing to buy decongestant for my family, ever.
For somebody with recurring allergies or some other chronic condition, yeah you can go through these a lot. You have to balance not taking them too often (which can make things worse) against potentially not being able to sleep properly at night
I'm not a doctor, but wouldn't someone with more than just a temporary need, get a prescription for something more long-term? Nasal decongestant is extremely effective.
Eight+ packs a year, assuming everyone in her family is using them, is still likely in excess of what's considered safe for long-term use. Many of those products are incredibly hard on the liver.
Nasal decongestant is generally only supposed to be used for a few days in a row otherwise it can also start to cause damage (and one can have some type of dependency as well)
Brutal 😟
I doubt she was buying for the same person eight times a year—more likely for a half-dozen people once or twice a year, which might include her kids, parents, siblings, or other people who are part of her family but not of her household. One person getting two colds a year is certainly not impossible, especially if they're living with school-aged children, who tend to bring home a sample or two of every virus circulating in the region. Plus, some people are more susceptible to this stuff than others.
But one package isn't a single dose. And chronic use can cause liver damage.
Seems excessive, even assuming she's buying it for people outside of her home (which would also seem strange).
Pretty sure liver damage isn't a side effect of phenylephrine—it's a side effect of Tylenol/acetaminophen/paracetamol, which is often but not always included with it in combination cold medicines (some include ibuprofen instead, or no painkiller at all). Tylenol might have been present in what this nurse was buying, but it's also possible that it wasn't. Phenylephrine's main side effect is high blood pressure, I think—my father's forbidden from taking it for that reason.
We have no reason to believe the nurse's family were taking all of each package. Someone in the family could be pitching out half-empty boxes as "no longer needed", or just forgetting where they put the stuff and then discovering it's past its best-before date when they find it later.
Equally, they might have four kids and all of them plus the parents getting the same cold sequentially as they pass it from one to the other. 7 days per cold x 3 doses per day x 6 people = 126 pills. Two colds per year would then require 8 boxes of around 30 pills, but no one will have taken them for more than a week at a time, or more than two weeks in the year. That isn't chronic use.
As for buying it for relatives outside her own household, it isn't hard to sketch out a scenario: "Ugh, I'm (achoo!) dying here, sis—can you stop off on the way home from work and get me something for this? You're a nurse, so you'd know better than I do which ones work."
(Yeah, I'm playing devil's advocate a bit here—I have no more real information than you do. My point is that while the media may have cherry-picked their example, this person isn't necessarily lying or doing anything dangerous.)
I know we're trying to rationalize all this, but it's leading to more questions! LOL
"Eori, who has worked as a nurse for 33 years, purchased some of the drugs mentioned for herself and her family..."
Considering that it seems pretty well known that pseudoephedrine is pretty ineffective for many years now, was she purchasing this decades ago and is now pissed off about it? Or has she continued to purchase it after knowing for years that it's ineffective?
Really, either way, as a healthcare professional, you'd think that chronic congestion would be addressed through prescription meds and not OTC drugs. Right? 🫠
She may have done what you just did, and confused pseudoephedrine (which works) with phenylephrine (the one that doesn't). 😜
(In all fairness, they're both multisyllable weird Greekish words that have the same first letter and the same ending, and I've come close to mixing them up a couple of times myself.)
As a nurse (not nurse-practitioner) I don't think she has any power to prescribe. All she can do is offer over-the-counter meds and advise the person to see a doctor if she thinks that's warranted.
There was one amusing article which I seem unable to find again that suggested American cold sufferers should get their hands on pseudoephedrine by obtaining crystal meth (which is more widely available and more stably supplied) and running the reaction the FDA was so afraid of in reverse to get the decongestant. Maybe we should have tried doing that up here too. 🤔
She may have done what you just did, and confused pseudoephedrine (which works) with phenylephrine (the one that doesn’t). 😜
LOL. Oops. I wrote the wrong active ingredient in the link, but the article talks about how phenylephrine, which replaced pseudoephedrine, is ineffective. The former isn't even available, so I'd hope she didn't confuse the two all these years!
There was one amusing article which I seem unable to find again that suggested American cold sufferers should get their hands on pseudoephedrine by obtaining crystal meth
LOL. That's the most American pharmaceutical story I've ever heard! 😂