Can nasal sprays be addictive?

Some people have become so dependent on their nasal sprays and products that they might worry they're addicted. Marshall Brain explains why you can't really be addicted to nasal products in this episode.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Brainstop from house Stuff works dot com where
smart Happens. Hi Am Marshall Brain with today's question, can
nasal sprays be addictive? It's pretty scary to think that
you're addicted to any drug, especially when available at a

(00:22):
grocery store. Oprah Winfrey even devoted an entire show to
people who can't live without their decongested spray. But fortunately
it's safe to say that you're not really addicted if
you think you're addicted to these sprays. Doctors and scientists
define addiction in different ways. Scientists call drugs addictive if

(00:42):
they stimulate the pleasure center in your brain. Psychiatrists, on
the other hand, say something is addictive if your need
for it makes you do illegal, harmful things to get it.
Nasal sprays don't do either of these things. They have
no effect on the brain, and while you may need
your medicine to breathe freely, you probably aren't going to

(01:03):
hold up a bank or skip work to go buy
some nasal Sprayser drops are sold over the counter under
brand names like Afrin, Sinex, Neo, sinephron, Alarrest, Durhamist, and
sine Arrest. They contain a medicine that constricts the blood
vessels inside your nose. When you have a cold, the
flu or allergies, these blood vessels becomes swollen and dilated.

(01:27):
This stimulates the nasal membranes to produce large amounts of mucus,
like stepping on a garden hose. Constricting the blood vessels
reduces the blood flow to your nostrils. The swollen vessels shrink,
and this helps drive things up. Unfortunately, your nose can
become tolerant to decongested effects if you use it for

(01:48):
too long. Tolerance in general happens because your body launches
a biological counter attack against the effects of the drug.
One way it does this is by increasing cellular process
and other activities that produce the opposite effect. In the
case of decongestents, the body tries to dilate the nasal

(02:08):
blood vessels despite the drug. This cancels out the decongestents effect,
and the same squeeze of the bottle that brought you
relief before no longer helps. You end up using more
and more to get rid of your stuff. He knows,
and each time you sniff more decongestent, your body redoubles
its efforts against the resulting constriction. This vicious cycle continues

(02:31):
until you can't exist without a bottle of nasal spray
in hand. If you don't use it, you're stuffed up
and miserable. This is called rebound congestion. With lots of
medicine on board, your nasal passages are dry and you
feel healthy. With the medicine gun, the physiological effects that
your body has made rain unchecked. What happens is the

(02:54):
exact opposite of the drug's effect. Your blood vessels swell
up again, and your nasal lie fills up with mucus
and your running nose returns. This is why the package
labeling for these drugs tells you to limit their use
to three days in a row. If you don't build
up tolerance to the decongested effects, you won't get rebound congestion.

(03:15):
And if you are tolerant, don't worry. It's not permanent.
If you quit cold Turkey, the changes that your body
has made will eventually be reversed in a couple of
weeks to a month. In the meantime, your doctor may
be able to give you a prescription drug to safely
combat your congestion. For more on this and thousands of

(03:36):
other topics because that how stuff works dot Com. And
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