In a significant step, the Indian Health Ministry has banned around 344 fixed dose combination (FDC) drugs that are widely available in the market. The ban was imposed on a ground that these drugs are used “irrationally” and has no proven efficacy. There are several reports that cough syrups containing codeine are actually harmful to children and they do not really work. To be very clear, cough remedies have never been proven better than a placebo, either for adults or children in evidence-based researches.
Yet they are largely used and demanded in clinical practice. Physicians periodically get requests from parents to prescribe cough medicine for their child that contains codeine. Besides the codeine, these drugs often contain alcohol, naturally leading to a better night's sleep for child and, hence, relieving the exhausted parent. It is said that these drugs cause lethal damage to…
