As I’m using my asthma inhaler this morning, I realize, why don’t we use inhalation for other medications?
Obviously wouldn’t be needed for everything, but things that need to act fast I feel like it would be effective.
The alveoli in your lungs are a direct connection to your blood supply, and seem pretty effective for the nicotine while smoking.
I’ve even seen it a few times in fiction like Dread or Cyberpunk.
So why not?
In: Biology
Inhalers are risky in multiple ways that all other delivery methods aren’t. You can breathe wrong and miss the dose or lose part of it. It can deposit the medicine elsewhere and thus not deliver correctly. Dosage may be irregular or variable, perhaps due to buildup inside the inhaler itself. Etc. Further, the propellant is a possible irritant.
More or less, it’s an unnecessary risk of loss, waste, or inefficiency when we already have perfectly good alternatives. The vast majority of inhaler delivered medicines need to go to the lungs specifically and are for breathing related stuff because it’s useful to deliver it straight to the destination.
You see stuff like this in cyberpunk stories because in the 80s this was the bleeding edge of medicine and we didn’t really know whether it was beneficial or not to deliver other meds this way. In general, it’s not an improvement worth the risks.
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