Nonpharmacological Interventions for Refractory Chronic Cough Patients: Systematic Review

Abstract

Present data support the use of two to four sessions of education, cough suppression techniques, breathing exercises, and counselling in order to achieve improvements in cough sensitivity and cough-related quality of life for people with chronic refractory cough. Due to the lack of validated outcome measures, results for other aspects of cough should be interpreted with caution. There is a need for additional larger-powered comparative studies investigating nonpharmacological interventions for refractory chronic cough.

Treatment of Unexplained Chronic Cough

“…23,27,29 One study used several labels concurrently within the same article 25 (treatment-resistant, idiopathic, and intractable). The systematic reviews used the terms refractory, [30][31][32] unexplained, 31,33 and idiopathic cough.…”

Speech Therapy—A Non-Pharmacological Method to Manage Difficult-to-treat Chronic Cough

“…Speech therapy for CC is multifactorial intervention, which may include different elements: education about cough, identification of cough triggers, instruction on cough suppression techniques, breathing exercises, vocal hygiene and hydration techniques and sometimes some forms of counselling. These treatment techniques generally are delivered by speech and language therapists or physiotherapists and usually consist of 2-4 sessions [7,8,17]. The mechanism of reducing cough by speech pathology intervention is yet to be determined.…”

“…The mechanism of reducing cough by speech pathology intervention is yet to be determined. Perhaps, breathing exercises allow to relax the throat, neck, and shoulder muscles, which may help to reduce the adductor activity of the vocal folds during expiration in patients with CC and paradoxical vocal fold movement [7]. To our knowledge, the speech therapy has not been available for patients with CC in Poland.…”

“…The latter is the most documented method of management of UCC or difficult-to-treat cough [4]. Speech therapy consists of education, learning strategies to reduce cough, respiratory and speech exercises [6][7][8]. We present a case of a patient with persistent, difficult-www.journals.viamedica.pl -to-treat chronic cough due to gastroesophageal reflux disease, who was finally succesfully treated with speech therapy.…”

Dirglių Gerklų Sindromas: Šiuolaikinė Diagnostika Ir Gydymas

“…Moksliniais tyrimais įrodyta, kad balso terapija yra veiksminga gydant dirglių gerklų sindromą [9]. Atliktos metaanalizės parodė, kad balso terapija yra veiksminga maži-nant gerklų spazmų epizodus, atkaklaus kosulio pasireiškimą ir gerinant gyvenimo kokybę [26].…”