Despite the billions of dollars spent every year in this country on over-the-counter cough syrups, most such medicines do little if anything to relieve coughs, the nation’s chest physicians say. Over-the-counter cough syrups generally contain drugs in too low a dose to be effective, or contain combinations of drugs that have never been proven to treat coughs, said Dr. Richard Irwin, chairman of a cough guidelines committee for the American College of Chest Physicians.Drugstore shelves are crowded with cough syrups promising speedy, often non-drowsy relief without a prescription.But “the best studies that we have to date would suggest there’s not a lot of justification for using these medications because they haven’t been shown to work,” said Irwin, a professor of medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, Mass.The group’s new cough treatment guidelines discourage use of over-the-counter cough medicines. Irwin said that not only are such medicines ineffective at treating coughs due to colds — the most common cause of coughs — they can also can lead patients to delay seeking treatment for more serious coughs, including whooping cough.The guidelines strongly recommend that adults receive a new adult vaccine for whooping cough, approved last year.The Consumer Healthcare Products Association, a trade group for makers of over-the-counter medications, disputed the guidelines and said over-the-counter cough medicines provide relief to millions of people each year.The guidelines were published in the January issue of Chest, the American College of Chest Physicians’ journal, released Monday. The recommendations have been endorsed by the college, the American Thoracic Society and the Canadian Thoracic Society.
