title: Treatment of Chronic Cough.
abstract: Objective Chronic cough remains a challenging condition, especially in cases where it persists despite comprehensive medical management. For these particular patients, there appears to be an emerging role for behavior modification therapy. We report a series of patients with refractory chronic cough to assess if there is any benefit of adding behavioral therapy to their treatment regimen. Study Design A case series with planned chart review of patients treated for chronic cough. Setting The review was performed with an outpatient electronic health record system at a tertiary care center. Subjects and Methods The charts of all patients treated for chronic cough by a single laryngologist over a 30-month period were analyzed. Patients' response to treatment and rate of cough improvement were assessed for those with refractory chronic cough who underwent behavior modification therapy. Results Thirty-eight patients with chronic cough were initially treated empirically for the most common causes of cough, of which 32% experienced improvement. Nineteen patients who did not significantly improve with medical management underwent behavior modification therapy with a speech-language pathologist. Of these patients, 84% experienced resolution or marked improvement of their symptoms. Conclusion Behavioral therapy may be underutilized in practice and could lead to improvement of otherwise recalcitrant cough.
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
authors.forename: Resha S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Soni
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.|2 Department of Speech Pathology, Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ebersole
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.|3 Department of Surgical Oncology, Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
authors.forename: Nausheen
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Jamal
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D001521:Behavior Therapy; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003371:Cough / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016896:Treatment Outcome
keywords: behavioral therapy; chronic cough; idiopathic chronic cough; refractory chronic cough; speech therapy