The unpleasant flavors could help reinforce the placebo effect by convincing you that they’re “real medicine” (because surely they couldn’t be effective medicine if they tasted good)
> why is cough medicine still disgustingly flavored
That’s intentional. It’s a feature, not a bug.
You don’t want people using cough syrup as something flavorful on purpose. You want it to taste not like medicine, but also not like food.
Note that certain prescription cough syrups are, just from their ingredients, often used with high-sugar sodas or juice to get high. For example: codeine is an opioid, and the opioid syrup (usually purple in color) is literally mixed with soda, and other sugar (like hard candy) to make a drink called “lean” or “purple drank” (spelled with an ‘a’). Yes, this is bad, and yes, we want to discourage this as much as possible.
Side thought: One of the reasons that root beer is usually considered awful and disgusting by Europeans, is that apparently root beer flavor is a standard flavoring for medicine, like how a certain grape or cherry flavor is often used in the USA.
They may not taste great, but do people really think them disgusting? Anti nausea pills taste so much worse tbh, and make me feel more like throwing up for the next hour or so. (Currently 40 mins after taking one of the nasty things)
I know it’s so kids don’t find them and overdose, but man I wish more medicine came in the form of a gummy. Like I wanna be able to just fill out a paper saying I don’t have kids gimme my gummies.
In addition to the other reasons mentioned: kids are fucking stupid and it’s a good way to incentivize them NOT to go for the cough syrup when left to their own devices.
Comments
So you only take it when you need it
Cough medicines are mostly placebo ([2] [3], …)
The unpleasant flavors could help reinforce the placebo effect by convincing you that they’re “real medicine” (because surely they couldn’t be effective medicine if they tasted good)
I thought it was to deter small children, if they got into the medicine cabinet
> why is cough medicine still disgustingly flavored
That’s intentional. It’s a feature, not a bug.
You don’t want people using cough syrup as something flavorful on purpose. You want it to taste not like medicine, but also not like food.
Note that certain prescription cough syrups are, just from their ingredients, often used with high-sugar sodas or juice to get high. For example: codeine is an opioid, and the opioid syrup (usually purple in color) is literally mixed with soda, and other sugar (like hard candy) to make a drink called “lean” or “purple drank” (spelled with an ‘a’). Yes, this is bad, and yes, we want to discourage this as much as possible.
Side thought: One of the reasons that root beer is usually considered awful and disgusting by Europeans, is that apparently root beer flavor is a standard flavoring for medicine, like how a certain grape or cherry flavor is often used in the USA.
When I was a kid, orange flavored Triaminic was downright delicious and I contemplated chugging the whole bottle.
I didn’t though, cause I was 6 and couldn’t reach the cupboard.
So people didn’t drank it like juice
They may not taste great, but do people really think them disgusting? Anti nausea pills taste so much worse tbh, and make me feel more like throwing up for the next hour or so. (Currently 40 mins after taking one of the nasty things)
You ever see how funky things get when you drink a bunch of it?
I know it’s so kids don’t find them and overdose, but man I wish more medicine came in the form of a gummy. Like I wanna be able to just fill out a paper saying I don’t have kids gimme my gummies.
In addition to the other reasons mentioned: kids are fucking stupid and it’s a good way to incentivize them NOT to go for the cough syrup when left to their own devices.