Benzonatate reduces the cough reflex and is meant for children 10+ and gained popularity due to its non-addictive properties. Since 2010, the amount of prescriptions for this drug have been exponentially increasing. Along with the increase in prescriptions, there have been increased correlated side effects. There has been an increase in benzonatate poisoning between 2010 to 2018 and an increase in child ER patients as an unintended effect of the public trying to cut down the number of unnecessary narcotic prescriptions. Those same years, hydrocodone and codeine along with other narcotic prescriptions have been drastically reduced. There have been nearly 5000 cases of benzonatate poisoning between that 8 year time period and the number of children prescribed with cough medicines containing benzonatate has increased by 62% since 2012. Along with these increases in consumption, there have also been increases in children being admitted to the emergency rooms due to overdoses of Benzonatate. 

Of the 4700 ER admissions due to overdosing of Benzonatate, 77% were accidental misuses and 83% of those misusers are children under the age of 5. As the Food and Drug Administration approved this medicine only for the ages of 10 and above, it is not uncommon for children younger than that to experience side effects. The other cases that showed purposeful abuse of the drug, 63% were teenagers with less than 1% having severe side effects. The deaths reported from these cases were for children between the age of 4 months and 4 years.

Conclusion

This comes to show that every drug can come with unintended consequences and everybody should look at what is being put in their body. Although 79% of teenagers who abuse this drug had no side effects, it is impossible to rule out the possibility that the next person abusing this drug won’t suffer long term consequences. Everything in life, not just medicine, should be taken in moderation otherwise the consequences could show up later in your life.