Why won’t my cough go away?
What if there’s no clear cause?
Very occasionally, despite thorough testing and treatment, a cough persists. This is called refractory chronic cough.
When no cause can be identified, it’s known as unexplained chronic cough. In the past, unexplained cough may have been diagnosed as a “psychogenic” or “habit” cough, a term which has fallen from favour.
We now understand that cough hypersensitivity makes a person cough out of proportion to the trigger, and that both the peripheral and central nervous systems play a role in this. But our understanding of the relationship between hypersensitivity and chronic cough remains incomplete.
These are disabling conditions and should be referred to a respiratory clinic or a chronic cough specialist. Speech pathology treatments may also be effective for refractory and unexplained coughs.
There are a class of new medications in the pipeline that block cough receptors, and seem promising for persisting, troublesome coughs.
David King, Senior Lecturer in General Practice, The University of Queensland
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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