Depression Common Among Patients With Chronic Cough

Patients who suffer from chronic cough may be at increased risk for depression, shows a new study. Researchers from Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Center in New York followed 100 patients with chronic cough for 3 months. Patients completed the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression (CES-D) scale and provided subjective cough scores reflecting severity of their cough. Overall, 53 percent of patients scored "16 on the CES-D, indicating presence of significant depression. Of the 81 patients who completed the study, results indicated a statistically significant improvement in both cough and depression scores after 3 months of treatment. In addition, improvement in cough score correlated significantly with improvement in depression score. This study appears in the December issue of CHEST, the peer-reviewed journal of the American College of Chest Physicians,

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Newsbriefs from the journal Chest, December 2006

Contact: Jennifer Stawarz
American College of Chest Physicians