The following is a summary of the “Referrals, etiology, prevalence, symptoms, and treatments of chronic cough: A survey of allergy specialists,” published in the December 2022 issue of Allergy and Clinical Immunology by Prenner, et al.
Those who have been diagnosed with chronic cough (CC) and see an allergist want more information on the kind of people who make the referral, the causes of the condition, the frequency with which it occurs, the symptoms it causes, and the therapies that have allergy specialists (AS). There were 177 AS that participated in an online survey. The prevalence of CC, where patients were referred for therapy, and how effective such therapies were all asked of ASs in the study. Among the 103 (58% of total) AS who reported working with people diagnosed with CC, the vast majority were female sex (58.26%) and White (65.69%).
Patients with CC were most often referred to AS by primary care providers like family doctors, NPs, PAs, and internists. Furthermore, 20% of the respondents reported a complete resolution of the symptoms for more than 75% of their patients with CC. A lack of sleep, feeling embarrassed in public, having a lower quality of life, and having trouble falling or staying asleep were the top 4 “extremely common concerns” stated by those with CC.
Antireflux medications, inhaled corticosteroids alone or in combination with long-acting β-agonist, short-acting bronchodilators, and 1st generation antihistamines accounted for 4 of the top 5 most commonly prescribed treatments for CC. More than 50% of the CC patients did not find any treatments “very successful.” The current treatments for CC do not adequately alleviate its symptoms, so new therapies are desperately needed.
Source: sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1081120622016738