The pharmacology of cough

Cough is an indispensable defensive reflex. Although generally beneficial, cough is also a common symptom of diseases such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and lung cancer. Cough remains a major unmet medical need and, although the centrally acting opioids have remained the antitussive drug of choice for decades, such opioids possess many unwanted side-effects. However, new research into the behaviour of airway sensory nerves has provided greater insight into the mechanisms of cough and new avenues for the discovery of novel non-opioid antitussive drugs. In this article, the pathophysiological mechanisms of cough and the implications of this research for the development of novel antitussive drugs will be discussed. A poster depicting the pharmacology of cough is available online and in print as supplementary material to this article.