alt Hacker NewsSo at least here in Germany, we pretty much all use nasal spray with xylometazoline, and it's very effective as it also binds to adrenergic receptors. It does not seem to be available in the US, and at least from a cursory search I cannot find out why...?
EDIT: After looking a bit more, the simple answer seems to be that it's not FDA approved for nasal congestion, and since there's not much money to be made, there's simply no incentive to go through the costly approval process..
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I’ve wondered this also. As an American who lived in Germany and found this while living there, I can attest that it’s quite effective for me. There are other quite useful and safe drugs that are not available in the US.
There are nasal sprays in the US - and yes they are more targeted and better in general than pills. But Americans love their pills ... almost as much as Germans love their homeopathic remedies :-)
They have oxymetazoline but I think the problem with this class of decongestants is that it is ineffective and dependency is basically guaranteed if used for more than a couple of days