Dr Roxana Siles: QOL Improves Greatly From Effective Chronic Cough Treatment

Patients can get embarrassed or rethink venturing out, whether that be to church, the theater, or to dinner, so effective treatments for chronic cough can have a positive impact on their work and home lives, noted Roxana Siles, MD, FAAAAI, staff in the Department of Allergy and Immunology at Cleveland Clinic and codirector of the Asthma Center at Cleveland Clinic.

Transcript

What impact might an effective treatment that resolves the symptoms of chronic cough have on quality of life?

When patients come to our office with a chief complaint of chronic cough, these are the patients who think twice before going to church or going to a theater or going out for dinner. And I think, unfortunately, this has been even more so now in the age of COVID. A lot of times, they are embarrassed, or they just don’t want to be getting dirty looks by coughing—again, especially now. So it can really make a difference.

I do also see a lot of patients whose work requires a lot of talking to customers or employees and it’s really hard for them to be able to maintain a conversation or do a presentation without coughing. So, it could certainly impact not only the quality of life in general, but also their work. And, as I said, sometimes they’re coughing at night and not sleeping well, so it can play a role in many aspects of their daily lives. And I think it’s a huge thing for them.