How much time should pass so that a cough is chronic?
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All tosemos. It is in fact the most common symptom in the population that requires medical attention. The problem is when the cough lasts and lasts. Specifically, if it takes more than 8 weeks we have what doctors consider already chronic cough.So happens to be a symptom of a problem for the patient that can reach the depression, in the absence of a diagnosis and the long pilgrimage of specialists must visit to get proper treatment.According to British, American and international studies, mainly, the rate of the adult population affected could be between 6 and 10%. The profile would be that of a woman aged between 50 and 60 years.
The ‘tosedor’, a medical Pilgrim
Dr. Adalberto Pacheco, responsible for chronic cough at the Hospital Ramón y Cajal’s Madrid unit, ensures that the chronic “tosedor” is a patient who passes it very badly: “Suffers a pilgrimage by multiple consultations between 6 and 8 specialists of average, your problem is very annoying and can pursue even with depressive syndrome”.The diagnosis of cough evaluation can be complicated because it is a non-specific symptom with a broad differential diagnosis. The problem is that it does not belong to a specialty in particular and has several possible causes. In Spain there are only two units dedicated to chronic cough. Cough is a reflex arc, the onset of cough due to the presence of receptors are stimulated by various causes. These receptors are found in various parts of the body. There are receptors of cough in: Lung, bronchus and trachea, faringe-laringe, sinus, auditory system and esophagus.
Problems of quality of life
Why the management of chronic cough should be extended at least to three diseases: between 50 or 60 per cent to gastroesophageal reflux; by 30% it may be due to asthma; between 10 or 20% to a pharyngeal problem and a small proportion to sinusitis and unknown causes. Chronic cough in many of their causes often requiring for their solution long treatments, months, and often doctors and patients are unaware of the precise data of the management and there are very frequent failures due to abandonment. However, between 80 and 90% of cases it fixes, but 10% remains unresolved over time. In the opinion of Dr. Adalberto Pacheco, chronic cough should have greater attention by its incidence and its problems of quality of life: “the quality of life for these patients is very bad, people often confuse him because she believes that it can be by tobacco, pollution, etc, but what is clear is that no one must cough every day”.
