Preparations for cough: how to understand a huge number of medicines?

Cough can not be called a disease. This is just a symptom, so you need to treat what this cough caused. And there can be many reasons. Coughing is a reflex with which the body tries to purify itself of substances that are foreign to it. It can be different, that's why the cough drugs also differ markedly.

Cough can be wet or dry, strong or light, persistent (prolonged) or short-term (acute). The main thing is to correctly identify the cause. If this is the result of ARVI - the cough will pass itself after the treatment of the underlying illness. To temporarily relieve the condition, the doctor usually prescribes cough supplements to facilitate the phlegm. Other reasons require careful examination: clinical, laboratory, instrumental. After the detection and pathogenetic treatment of the underlying disease, cough should also gradually pass. Unfortunately, up to 38% of patients remain with an uncertain diagnosis and, having a history of chronic cough, treat it symptomatically.

In such cases, cough drugs are used that depress the cough reflex. There are two ways of achieving this goal: reducing the sensitivity of receptors on the efferent endings of the vagus nerves, and suppressing the cough center in the medulla oblongata.

Narcotic drugs

They try to prescribe infrequently, as they depress the respiratory center and reduce the respiratory volume. In some cases (emphysema, bronchial asthma), they can worsen a patient's condition. We should not forget about the possibility of drug dependence. The most common cough remedies are those that contain codeine, morphine, dionine, etc.

Non-narcotic drugs for coughing

Some of them have a central effect (like narcotic) in combination with analgesic. For example, pills for cough, the instruction for their use indicates a depressing effect on the cough center - they are Oxeladin, Glaucin, Butamirat. More safe are the drugs that affect the peripheral nerves, for example, "Prenoxdiazine" ("Libexin"). They are used more often and are allowed for use in children.

The peripheral drugs can be divided into three groups from cough.

Enveloping. These are usually tablets and syrups (with acacia extracts, wild cherries, glycerin, liquorice), which form a protective layer (enveloping) on the affected mucosa. They are used to reduce epiglottis cough.

Locally anesthetizing. They are used before carrying out certain examinations (bronchography, bronchoscopy) for short-term complete inhibition of desires for coughing. These include "Tsiklain", "Benzocaine" and others.

Moisturizing aerosols. Steam inhalations can also be referred to here. These funds moisturize the mucous, diluting the bronchial secret (reducing its viscosity). Various medications are added to the inhalation fluid for greater efficacy.

Without a doctor's recommendation, you should not take any money, but if you really need it, the last group of drugs is considered the most harmless. It also includes various syrups for children. In children, there is almost no unproductive cough, so treatment is reduced to dilution and increased sputum. If you need to choose a cough syrup for pregnant women, any tool that is approved for use in young children is suitable. The most popular of these syrups: "Ambrobene", "Kodelak fito", syrup of plantain.

In a huge variety of drugs for coughing, not every doctor is able to properly sort out, but to find the best remedy is even more difficult. At the first opportunity, no matter how easy it may seem, it is better to see a doctor - this is especially important for pregnant women.