cough & cold medication

Introduction

See cold & flu self-care kit Contrandications:

• OTC cough & cold medications not effective for children, thus not recommended
• use of cough & cold medications containing opioids limited to adults

Adverse effects

• 5.7% of ED visits associated with adverse drug events in children < 12 years) from cough & cold medications; most visits (64%) involve preschoolers (2-5 years); 2/3 for unsupervised ingestions; 26% for supervised administration without medication error; 8% for supervised administration with documented error; 7% of children require hospital admission
• adverse events most commonly in children < 4 years of age from OTC cough & cold medications
  • most commonly accidental unsupervised ingestion in home
  • brompheniramine, chlorpheniramine, dextromethorphan, diphenhydramine, doxylamine, guaifenesin, pseudoephedrine, & phenylephrine implicated in some cases
  • diphenhydramine was the most common medication involved in unsupervised ingestions (63%)
  • dextromethorphan most commonly involved in medication dosing errors (60%)
• common adverse events:
  • tachycardia, somnolence, hallucinations, ataxia, mydriasis, agitation
• 0.6% of cases fatal (20 cases total)
  • prescription opioids involved in 6 of 20 fatal cases

More general terms

• pharmaceutical agent

More specific terms

• chlophedianol/pseudoephedrine (Clofera)

Additional terms

• antitussive agent
• decongestant
• expectorant