Chronic Cough

Chronic cough is defined as a dry, unproductive cough that persists for more than a month with no specific medical reason for the cough. For example, pertussis (whooping cough) is well known to have a cough that lasts for several weeks; however, that type of cough would not be considered a chronic cough. If a cough persisted after the pertussis was resolved, the lingering cough might be considered as chronic cough. The inclusion of chronic cough as an entry in this encyclopedia may be surprising; this is generally not considered a disorder that falls within the scope of practice of the Speech–Language pathologist (SLP). There are, in fact, SLPs who specialize in behavioral management (treatment) of chronic cough.