In the first few months of college everyone gets sick. Common colds spread throughout East Halls. Although often overlooked, a common cold can really put someone on his or her butt. Extreme nasal congestion, a sore throat, mild fatigue, and coughing all can be a result of “just” a cold. Naturally, as a freshman in East, I got sick. After a week of continued cough and congestion while using Tylenol Cold, I went to University Health. My doctor diagnosed me with a common cold. Since the common cold is viral an antibiotic was of no use. For relief, he told me to get Sudophed and that basically all OTC cold medicines for decongesting are a rip off. I decided to do some more research into the topic to inform you all reading this.
The value of all medications and remedies comes in the active ingredients. These are the components that are effective in relieving whatever it is the product sets out to combat. The active ingredient in Tylenol Cold, and many OTC cold medications, is phenylephrine, which is supposed to be an effective decongestant. However, University of Florida questioned phenylephrine’s effectiveness in relieving congestion in 2006. Lots of articles have been written like this one, which claims over the counter cold medications are worthless. They cite studies that have been conducted to test if phenylephrine provides any more relief than a placebo. These experiments are all structured similarly.
The X variable is the whether or not the nasally congested participant receives phenylephrine or a placebo. The Y variable is the difference (the relief) between the congestion at the start and after a period of time passes since the administration of the pill.
The null hypothesis is that phenylephrine is no more effective than a placebo as a decongestant.
The alternative hypothesis is that phenylephrine provides significant congestion relief (compared to the placebo).
The subjects were randomly assigned and I saw no issues in the design. In many experiments designed like this including one by , the results showed no significant statistics. Therefore, many times the null hypothesis has not been rejected, meaning that phenylephrine does not help nasal congestion.
So why is an industry worth billions of dollars using a drug that isn’t working to decongest?
Turns out that the more effective drug, Pseudoephedrine, is no longer allowed to be sold over the counter. The Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act of 2005 signed by President Bush restricted cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine to behind the counter. This is because large quantities were bought and used to make Methamphetamines. Now, to purchase cold medicines like Psudophed, you need to show ID and your monthly purchases are limited.
So was pseudoephedrine actually more effective than phenylephrine?
Yes, according to a study by the ENT University Clinic at the University of Vienna who did an experiment comparing phenylephrine, pseudoephedrine, and a placebo. Their conclusion for patients suffering from rhinitis is that Psuedoephedrine provided significantly more relief.
So what is the take away?
If you are suffering from nasal congestion from a common cold, or allergies it is worth getting a product with pseudo ephedrine and not worth buying the typical over the counter cold medicines. The studies referenced above have shown that the lesser drug of phenylephrine is the same as a placebo.
http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/DrugSafety/InformationbyDrugClass/ucm072423.htm
http://www.salon.com/2015/11/05/its_a_ripoff_the_cold_truth_about_cold_medicine_partner/
http://news.ufl.edu/archive/2006/07/uf-researchers-question-effectiveness-of-decongestant.html
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/common-cold/basics/symptoms/con-20019062
http://www.jwatch.org/na39054/2015/09/17/phenylephrine-no-more-effective-placebo-nasal-congestion
https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00276016