Cough is the single most common reason that patients in the U.S. go to their doctor. Since it's a problem that's so huge, we certainly felt that well-written, state-of-the-art guidelines were necessary to help physicians all over the country deal with this common and often very difficult problem. |
It's no mystery to doctors that the over-the-counter preparations may not do much for the cough but the guidelines are stating the fact that there are very few well-done scientific studies to support their use. That's not to say that some of these products may not be helpful for some people to some degree, but those studies just aren't out there. |
The bottom line is, when you look at the well-done scientific studies, there were very few showing that any of the cough and cold products that we often buy are in fact effective for the acute cough from the common cold. We're not saying there's no role for any of these products but, for the common cold, there are very few good studies showing that any of these drugs do work. |
We're just saying that those studies don't exist that these products work. |