Cough desensitization treatment: A randomized, sham-controlled pilot trial for patients with refractory chronic cough.

Background: The purpose of this study was to determine feasibility of treating refractory chronic cough (RCC) with progressive doses of capsaicin paired with cough suppression.

Methods: In this sham-controlled, parallel RCT, 14 adults with RCC were randomly assigned to either behavioral cough suppression therapy (BCST) plus 6 treatment sessions involving exposure to nebulized capsaicin in progressively larger concentrations while actively suppressing cough (n = 8), or BCST plus 6 sessions of exposure to a single subthreshold dose of capsaicin (sham; n = 6). The Leicester Cough Questionnaire (LCQ) was the primary outcome measure.