The new European Respiratory Society (ERS) cough guidelines were published this September [ ]. These are pragmatic and practical guidelines developed to guide management of chronic cough patients in primary and secondary clinics. The guidelines are based on the recent paradigm shift that represents chronic cough as a disease entity with a common neurophysiological basis of vagal nerve hypersensitivity in the cough reflex pathway [ , ]. Hypersensitive cough, such as allotussia (cough induced by nontussive stimuli such as cold air, dry air, perfume, talking, or eating) or hypertussia (increased cough sensitivity in response to a known tussigen), is a common feature of most adult patients with chronic cough [ , ].
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