Prescriptions of opioid-containing drugs in patients with chronic cough.

Background: Chronic cough (CC) affects about 10% of adults, but opioid use in CC is not well understood.

Objectives: To determine the use of opioid-containing cough suppressant (OCCS) prescriptions in patients with CC using electronic health records.

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Patient-reported experiences with refractory or unexplained chronic cough: a qualitative analysis.

Background: Chronic cough, defined as a cough lasting 8 or more weeks, affects up to 10% of adults. Refractory chronic cough (RCC) is a cough that is uncontrolled despite comprehensive investigation and treatment of comorbid conditions while unexplained chronic cough (UCC) is a cough with no identifiable cause despite extensive evaluation of comorbid conditions. RCC and UCC are often poorly controlled.

Systematic literature review of treatments used for refractory or unexplained chronic cough in adults.

Background: Refractory or unexplained chronic cough (RCC or UCC) is difficult to manage and is usually treated by the off-label use of drugs approved for other indications.

Objective: The objectives of this systematic literature review (SLR) were to identify and characterize the current published body of evidence for the efficacy and safety of treatments for RCC or UCC.

Methods: The SLR was conducted in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines.

Machine learning to identify chronic cough from administrative claims data.

Accurate identification of patient populations is an essential component of clinical research, especially for medical conditions such as chronic cough that are inconsistently defined and diagnosed. We aimed to develop and compare machine learning models to identify chronic cough from medical and pharmacy claims data. In this retrospective observational study, we compared 3 machine learning algorithms based on XG Boost, logistic regression, and neural network approaches using a large claims and electronic health record database.