Cough Medicines: What Are They?

that afflicts the individual, it is possible to resort to the use of sedative cough drugs (in the presence of dry cough) and expectorant and mucolytic drugs (in the presence of a fat cough). It should be noted, however, that cough is not a disease, but a symptom. For this reason, it is very important to identify and, consequently, to treat the triggering factor.

Therapy with cough sedatives or mucolytics and expectorants is symptomatic and does not eliminate the triggering causes. Furthermore, it should be noted that the use of such drugs is not always useful or indicated.

For this reason, it is best to consult your doctor and avoid self-diagnosis and self-therapy.

For further information: Calming the cough: how to do it? . They, as mentioned, are particularly suitable for the treatment of dry and persistent cough, which is accompanied by pectoral pains. The action can be carried out centrally with inhibition of the cough center, or at a peripheral level with inhibition of the afferent or efferent pathways of the tussive stimulus.

The centrally acting antitussives can be distinguished in: mild narcotic analgesics and their synthetic isomers, such as codeine and dextromethorphan (they have a lower analgesic effect than morphine and do not cause toxic-dependence phenomena), their action does not end depressing the cough center, but also targets the respiratory mucous membranes, dehydrating them.

Other non-opioid related drugs include diphenhydramine and cloperastine.

The antitussives with peripheral action can be represented by: mild local analgesics-anesthetics, which reduce cellular excitability by blocking sodium channels; as such, they prevent the transmission of the tussive stimulus to the cough center.

For further information: Dry Cough: What it is, Causes and Cures .

Mucolytic drugs have a "fluidifying action, through which they reduce the viscosity of the mucus, favoring its expulsion." Their mechanism of action is based on the hydrolysis of the mucoproteins by breaking the disulfide bridges. Among the mucolytic active ingredients we remember ambroxol and carbocysteine.

For further information: Fat cough it will be necessary to resort to the use of antihistamine drugs; in case of reflux cough it will be necessary to take medicines suitable for the treatment of gastroesophageal reflux and gastric hyperacidity; in case of asthmatic cough it will be necessary to use anti-asthmatic drugs and so on.

For this reason, it is a good rule to never underestimate the cough symptom and to contact your doctor avoiding self-diagnosis and do-it-yourself therapies.