Tackling the tickle

摘要

For the first time UK guidelines for the treatment of cough have been produced by the British Thoracic Society(p267),which has calculated that acute cough costs the British economy about pound1bn a year.The guidelines are evidence-based and cover a spectrum of coughs from the trivial to the chronic that may indicate potentially life-threatening conditions and require prompt referral to a doctor.Many sections of the guidance will not be relevant to day-to-day community pharmacy practice,and those parts that are,may seem no more than commonsense and simply reinforce the current practice of many pharmacists.