From what I’ve seen in drugstores, cough medicine seems to come in either 4oz. or 8oz. bottles, regardless of whether it’s brand name Robitussin, or an off brand or store brand, like Tussin. When shopping for the stuff, though, I only seem to see single ingredient DXM in the smaller bottles. More than once I’ve reached for a large package of Tussin DM, thinking that the “DM” stood for “dextromethorphan”, but that particular preparation has an expextorant as well.
Is this a coincidence, or is single-ingredient DXM restricted to smaller sized bottles to hedge against its misuse? In a possibly unrelated action, we have a new law in California requiring minors to have a doctor’s prescription to buy DXM, as of the first of this year.
I do know that the position of actual controlled drugs in the schedules depends partly on the number of active ingredients in the medication as well as the strength, so I was curious as to whether a similar logic is at work with regard to OTC meds like Robitussin.
I believe that dextromethorphan as a single ingredient is available in capsule form in the United States. You can find out what medicines have been approved for the US by googling for Drugs@FDA and searching their database. I’d have a look now but just got the 20% warning on my iPod battery… I can try and look into it more later!
The only 8 ounce bottle of DXM only cough syrup I have ever seen for sale is(was? its been years since I’ve lived near an HEB) HEB grocery store brand generic, at less than three bucks it was the cheapest cough syrup available.
In fact there was an absolute explosion of DXM only medications in the past decade, gelcaps to hard candies to dissolving strips to sprays etc. If the FDA was concerned about abuse they have a funny way to show it!
Not necessarily. Smaller packages make the product more expensive for the consumer, so if the package of gelcaps, strips, spray, or whatever contains no more doses than the four ounce bottle of syrup, it’s the same situation but in a different state of matter, as it were.
