No more DXM in Germany?

[pne]

When I tried to buy some more cough lozenges today, I was told that the product I had been using (Silomat DMP) had been taken off the market. Apparently not only that, but all products containing the active ingredient dextromethorphan (DXM)—the pharmaceutical-technical assistant whom I spoke with said that there had been concerns about the cardiovascular system or something. So she recommended a cough syrup with herbal ingredients to me.

Comments

[dampscribbler.livejournal.com]

Interesting. The only thing I've heard against dextrom.... (for some reason it bugs me to call it dxm) is that kids abuse it to get high, which can be deadly.

[pne.livejournal.com]

I had read about the psychoactive effects in high doses, too. I'm not sure how many deaths have resulted, though.

Sort of like how pseudoephedrine is controlled or hard to find in the US due to possible abuse (as a precursor for crystal meth, IIRC).

[darth-spacey.livejournal.com]

Dextromethorphan itself is pretty much^* harmless in acute^** overdose, aside from being psychoactive (in a way that most people find unpleasant).

The health concerns for recreational abusers stem mostly from overdose of the other substances it's sold in mixtures with with, including guaifenesin (not harmfull, but it induces nausea), paracetamol (potentially very deadly in overdose), pseudoephedrine (which is indeed controlled in many parts of the USA due to its use in making methamphetamine and methcathinone), and a variety of antihistamines (traditional and/or non-drowsy, all of which can be bad news).

^*The main source of danger from acute overdose is Serotonin Syndrome, which is highly unpleasant as well as being dangerous.

^**The dangers of chronic abuse are not definitively understood, but seem to include permanent brain lesions.

While DXM is an anaesthetic, and can indeed fatally depress your breathing in especially severe overdose, I have never heard of cardio-vascular problems associated with normal, sporadic, on-label use. Almost all of the above things that it's mixed with can lead to cardio-vascular problems, though.

[pne.livejournal.com]

I'm also surprised that http://www.silomat.de/ doesn't give any indication (at first glance) that it was taken off the market. So I'm wondering what was up.

[germaniac-z.livejournal.com]

I am pretty sure that a dosage of 240 mg of dextromethorphan (which is aprox. as much as one would need to feel the "special" effects) would do just as much harm to your body as a night of heavy drinking, since the chemical is filtered, like alcohol, through the liver.
I am sure the pharmaceutical technical assistant was told by her boss not to inform the public of the "extra qualities" of this cough medicine.

[pne.livejournal.com]

I think she was confusing dextromethorphan with clobutinol, which was indeed taken off the market.