Tests show morphine eases coughs

Chronic cough can be distressing for patients

The opiate drug morphine is effective in easing long-standing coughs, as doctors have suspected, a study shows.

Physicians have long prescribed the powerful drug to people with stubborn coughs.

But until now, there was no hard proof from a trial comparing the effect of morphine with a dummy treatment.

The Hull University study findings on 27 patients with intractable cough are published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

Hard evidence

The patients responded quickly to the morphine treatment, which started at 5mg twice daily.

This benefit peaked after five days of treatment and continued through the remaining four weeks of the trial.

We have always thought that opiates are quite good for cough, but it is useful to have data to demonstrate this Dr Jaclyn Smith University of Manchester's North West Lung Centre

All of the patients had suffered from their persistent cough for at least three months.

During the "double-blind" study, none of them, nor the researchers, knew whether they were receiving the morphine treatment or a dummy drug.

The patients were asked to give a daily rating of their cough.

Slow-release morphine reduced the cough score levels by 40%.

But this was not without side effects. Two-fifths experienced constipation and a quarter reported drowsiness while on the drug.

However, Dr Alyn Morice and colleagues from the University of Hull and Castle Hill Hospital, in East Yorkshire, believe the benefits of taking the drug still outweigh any risks for treating cough that does not respond to other remedies.

CHRONIC COUGH Lasts more than eight weeks Often caused by asthma, drugs, environmental triggers or heartburn Most common in middle-aged women and obese people Reported by 10-20% of adults

Dr Morice explained: "Chronic cough can have a devastating effect on the quality of life of sufferers.

"This research provides evidence for the use of opiates in chronic cough."

Dr Jaclyn Smith, from the University of Manchester's North West Lung Centre, said: "We have always thought that opiates are quite good for cough, but it is useful to have data to demonstrate this.

"Opiates have been around for so long and predate proper evidence-based medicine."

She said there was a need for new treatments for chronic cough with fewer side effects.