Future drugs for the treatment of dry cough

Cough is a commonly frequent debilitating symptom that is often viewed as an intractable problem. However, specialist cough clinics report very high success rate, in the order of 90%.6 The key to successful management is to establish a diagnosis and treat the cause. Idiopathic cough is rare and commonly misdiagnosed, because of the failure to recognize that cough is often caused from sites outside the airway. Asthma, gastric reflux and rhinitis are common causes from three different anatomical areas and the realms of different specialists. This problem is complicated by the frequently atypical presentation of patients with cough. Thus, patients with cough-predominant asthma may not exhibit bronchoconstriction, and patients with reflux-associated cough may have no associated reflux symptoms such as heartburn. Hence, this warrants a detailed history and evaluation to reach a diagnosis for successful treatment. The following article aims to provide a framework for a logical approach, for patients with this highly disabling symptom.