3 Antitussive Drugs

Publisher Summary This chapter attempts to report progress in antitussive therapy achieved over the past twenty years. The chapter discusses the drugs that have a direct and specific action on the cough reflex, including the opium alkaloids, their synthetic derivatives and substitutes, and newer non-narcotic compounds. Such a classification eliminates adjuvant drugs such as expectorants and antibiotics that are generally used in the treatment of cough-accompanying respiratory disorders. The chapter states that antitussives with a selective anaesthetic activity on the stretch receptors of the lung have been developed. Morphine, codeine, and their derivatives act on central respiratory mechanisms, and codeine is generally accepted as the prototype of antitussives having a central point of attack. The chapter also reviews that the final stage in the development of a new antitussive drug is the clinical evaluation, and discusses whether to use patients suffering from pathological cough or individuals with an experimentally induced cough.