00:00
Now, cough suppressants.
00:03
Have you ever had someone in
your house have a hacking cough?
And you're trying to sleep and all
you can hear is them coughing?
I'm gonna talk about
what that means.
00:13
I know when I teach in nursing
school and when proctoring exams
and somebody in the room has a cough, I worry
about their safety 'cause the students
just kind of give him the stare of death
when they keep coughing during a test.
00:25
But you know how it is
when you have a cough.
00:27
The more you try to not cough, the
more it seem you need to cough.
00:32
Let's talk about some over
the counter treatments.
00:34
Antitussive means
anti - against, tussive - cough.
00:39
So these are cough suppressants
that are available.
00:41
Dextromethorphan, now it doesn't
have any Opioid content.
00:45
It's a non-opioid cough suppressant.
00:49
It's available over the counter.
00:50
It's an opiod derivative but you don't
really have the euphoric effect
if you take it in a normal dosage.
00:59
Now, some of you probably already know
that this is a drug that can be abused.
01:04
That particulary in our teenage population,
they will drink large quantities of this.
01:10
And when they drink this cough medicine, they end
up like on a PCP-like dissociative mind trip.
01:16
So this one is another drug
that is at risk for abuse.
01:20
It's available, you usually don't
have to show your ID to purchase it.
01:24
And so if it's abused, you're gonna
end up with this PCP like experience.
01:29
Now Dextromethorphan is in lots
and lots of over the counter
cold medicine that are combinations.
01:35
So you always wanna be careful when you
are a family member or your patients
are combining multiple cold
medicines because they can overdose
some things like
tylenol or dextromethorphan.
01:48
Now, it's a pretty good antitussive.
01:50
I know when I have a cold, I use it.
01:53
But you wanna keep in mind:
take it within normal doses
and don't take multiple over
the counter cold medicines
because you're risking
overdosing on that.
02:02
Now, the next group
does involve opioids.
02:05
Remember, dextromethorphan
is opioid derivative
but it doesn't have that euphoria if
you take it in appropriate amount.
02:12
Prescription antitussives contain codeine and
this is more effective than dextromethorphan
but you have to have a script for it.
02:20
You gotta have a health care provider
write the prescription for you.
02:24
It is 1/10th a dose that we use for pain in codeine
so you would have to really drink a lot of it
to get a super high buzz but it is
very effective in treating your cough.
02:37
So when it comes to cough, you
have an over the counter option
and you have a prescription option.
02:43
Both of them are either an opioid
derivative or an actual opioid.
02:47
But remember it is in a much smaller
dosage than we would use for pain control.