The purpose of this study is to determine if Pregabalin, a medication used for the treatment of seizures and chronic pain, can be used to effectively treat people who suffer from non-asthmatic chronic cough (cough lasting over 8 weeks).
A significant number of patients have an impaired quality of life due to chronic cough that fails to respond to therapeutic efforts. Research suggests that patients with chronic cough may have an oversensitive cough reflex. Reflexes are involuntary responses to nerve stimulation. Since standard cough medicines may not be helpful for treating the oversensitive cough reflex, treatment with neurologically acting agents has been investigated. Existing work in treatment of cough of unknown etiology has focused on the use of Gabapentin, a compound that acts neurologically that is used in the treatment of epilepsy and pain. A similar drug, Pregabalin, may be a superior medication for this indication. Pregabalin is rapidly absorbed with peak blood concentrations within 1 hour, has an approximate bioavailability of 90%, and is 3 to 10 times more potent than Gabapentin and has no known pharmacokinetic drug interactions.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
TRIPLE
Enrollment
40
Increasing dose regimen depending on tolerability followed by decreasing dose regimen.
A control substance, Lactose is administered in place of Pregabalin.
The Ottawa Hospital (General and Civic Campuses)
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
RECRUITINGDetermine the impact of pregabalin on a cough specific quality of life questionnaire (Leicester Cough Questionnaire)
All patients will be required to fill out the questionnaire in the follow up visits. This questionnaire is validated, reliable and subjective method for assessing the response to therapy
Time frame: 42 days
Evaluate the impact of pregabalin on cough reflex sensitivity, which can be objectively measured using citric acid cough challenge
Citric acid has been used extensively in the literature as an effective inhaled compound that can induce cough. The changes in the concentration of citric acid that can cause 2 or 5 consecutive coughs (C2 or C5) has been used to objectively determine the impact of various therapies on cough receptors.
Time frame: 42 days
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