Superpotent DXM approved for hysteria

For those of you who tend towards emotional instability, there's a new drug for you: DXM, now under the name of Neudexta. Neudexta (from Avanir pharmaceuticals) has received approval for treatment of inappropriate emotional outbursts, also know as the pseudobulbar affect (PBA) or emotional incontinence.

Results submitted to the FDA showed that Nuedexta reduced episodes of PBA by about half...

The active component of the product is dextromethorphan, which has been used for years in cough syrup... some patients who got it noticed they were having fewer emotional outbursts.

It has taken a dozen years to bring Nuedexta to market. One reason is that the product combines dextromethorphan with a drug called quinidine, which keeps the active ingredient in the bloodstream longer.

But quinidine can affect heart rhythms and has other side effects. So in 2006, the FDA asked Avanir, the small company developing Nuedexta, to study a formulation that used less quinidine.

And the rest is history. Anyone ready to sign up for a Neudexta study?