Cough is a protective reflex and also a common symptom of many respiratory diseases. The basic principle of management in chronic cough is treatment of its underlying cause. However, certain situations will necessitate cough suppressant therapy on a short-term basis for symptomatic relief of cough. Antitussives, expectorants and mucolytic agents are often used as the cough suppressant. Most of these drugs, however, are not consistently effective in reducing cough in adequately performed clinical trials. The aim of this brief review is to provide the list and some rationale for the currently available antitussive agents to practitioners.
Antitussive Agents ; Cough ; Expectorants ; Reflex

No abstract available.
Antitussive Agents* ; Expectorants* ; Histamine Antagonists*

Cough is the most frequent complaint from medical patients even though coughing is a protective reflex. The principle of relief from a cough is treatment of its underlying disease. However, when the treatment of the cause of coughing is not effective, cough suppression therapy just to relieve the symptom may be attempted. Antitussives and mucoactive drugs are used for this purpose. Unfortunately, the currently available agents are not consistently effective and frequently have intolerable side effects. Therefore, understanding the side effects and mechanism of action of these agents is definitely needed. This review provides a summary of the currently available antitussives and mucoactives.
Antitussive Agents ; Cough ; Expectorants ; Humans ; Reflex ; Sputum

Antitussive Agents/*pharmacology ; Drug Evaluation, Preclinical/methods

Antitussive Agents/*pharmacology ; Drug Evaluation, Preclinical/methods

Antitussive Agents ; poisoning ; Child, Preschool ; Dextromethorphan ; poisoning ; Humans ; Male

Animals ; Antitussive Agents ; pharmacology ; Drug Evaluation, Preclinical ; methods ; Mice

Chronic cough-defined as a cough that persists for more than 3 weeks-is one of the most common symptoms during childhood that requires evaluation of causes and appropriate management, because it can be very disturbing to daily activities at home and school. Besides asthma, postnasal drip syndrome, post infectious cough, chronic bronchitis, gastroesophageal reflux disease and congenital anomaly, psychogenic factors are known to be possible causes of chronic cough in children. "Habit cough" and "respiratory tic" are different names given to psychogenic coughs. Psychogenic cough is croupy, loud, and unresponsive to antitussives or bronchodilators. It becomes more noticeable to attention and disappears during sleep. Over 90% of cases of psychogenic cough have been reported in patients under 18 years of age and its diagnosis is often delayed due to the time consumed for exclusion of other underlying organic disorders and the recognition of psychogenic factors as an etiology. We report on the case of an 11-year-old boy who presented with chronic cough of a barking nature and was diagnosed as having psychogenic cough by characteristics and 24-hour monitoring of cough frequency and who was treated by psychological interview.
Antitussive Agents ; Asthma ; Bronchitis, Chronic ; Bronchodilator Agents ; Child ; Cough* ; Diagnosis ; Gastroesophageal Reflux ; Humans ; Interview, Psychological ; Male

Cough is one of the most common symptoms leading to referral to medical institutions, and can be triggered by various causes. Since chronic cough does not respond well to antitussives that are generally prescribed in outpatient clinics, it is most important to seek the underlying cause and provide appropriate treatment rather than to just simply relieve symptoms. Although chronic cough is induced by various causes, it is one of difficult symptoms to deal with in clinical settings, having no specific symptom for diagnosis or definitive diagnostic tool. While taking patient's history, however, physicians can take a step closer to the treatment of chronic cough by asking more details about the character, frequency, onset, duration, and aggravating factor of cough, if any; the type of medication and time of its application; the response to previous treatment, etc. Underlying causes of chronic cough often require a long term treatment. Therefore, when treating patients, the physician must inform and discuss with the patient about the duration of treatment and what specifically he or she needs to do at home to maintain satisfactory compliance and expect good outcomes.
Ambulatory Care Facilities ; Antitussive Agents ; Compliance ; Cough ; Gastroesophageal Reflux ; Humans ; Laryngopharyngeal Reflux ; Referral and Consultation

BACKGROUND: We observed fentanyl known as centrally-acting antitussive agents provoke a cough response in some patients at induction of anesthesia. This may be of clinical importance. METHOD: 121 patients (ASA class I) were assigned randomly to 4 groups. Each group was given different doses of fentanyll Group 1 (n=30); 0.5ug/kg, Group 2 (n=30); 1ug/kg, Group 3 (n=33); 2ug/kg, Group 4 (n=28); 4 g/kgl, within 1 second through a peripheral venous cannula before induction of anesthesia. All patients were observed carefully in order to detect a cough response and any side effects. RESULT: The incidences of FCR (Fentanyl Cough Response) were 0% in Group 1, 10.0% in Group 2, 30.3% in Group 3, and 39.3% in Group 4. The ED50 of FCR was 4.25ug/kg. The mean onset-time from the end of fentanyl administration to the beginning of coughing was 12.5 seconds. FCR was decreased with aging, but not affected by weight, height, or smoking. Other serious side effects were not accompanied. CONCLUSION: Fentanyl can evoke the pulmonary chemoreflex dose-dependently and the ED50 was 4.25 g/kg.
Aging ; Anesthesia ; Antitussive Agents ; Catheters* ; Cough* ; Fentanyl* ; Humans ; Incidence ; Reflex* ; Smoke ; Smoking