[Chronic cough: common problem, discontended patients].

The prevalence of chronic cough is 10 to 15%. It has a strong negative impact on the patients' quality of life and it often causes depression. Many patients find medications unhelpful. Successful management of chronic cough requires the identification of the underlying condition like chronic rhinosinusitis, asthma, and asthma-like syndrome, and esophageal reflux disease. If the underlying condition cannot be identified or if the drug trials fail to help, the patient probably suffers from idiopathic chronic cough. A new paradigm has been introduced in which chronic cough is regarded as a primary condition.