Is Nasal Spray Addictive?

Q: Nasal sprays help with my seasonal allergies, but I’ve heard they can be addictive. Is that true? And what should I do if I think I’m hooked?

It’s an issue that has been joked about on social media and on comedy shows like “Saturday Night Live” and “Family Guy”: Once you start using certain nasal sprays, it’s challenging to stop.

Some active ingredients can indeed create extra stuffiness, causing “the compulsion to use it again and again for relief,” said Dr. Edward McCoul, an ear, nose and throat doctor at Ochsner Health in New Orleans.

Dr. McCoul said that an estimated 9 percent of people visiting E.N.T. physicians have what is called rhinitis medicamentosa, or “rebound congestion” — meaning that their sinuses become even stuffier than they were before using the sprays.

The resulting repeated need for nasal spray isn’t technically considered an addiction, said Dr. Jonathan Bernstein, an allergist and immunologist in Cincinnati. The spray would need to change a person’s brain chemistry to fit the official definition.

But the physical dependence is a real phenomenon. When the blood vessels in your nose get too accustomed to certain sprays, you can wind up feeling as though you couldn’t breathe without them.

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