Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Psychogenic Cough in Children : a case series

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Cough is the most common presenting symptom in pediatric primary care settings. Coughcan impact a child's activity level and ability to sleep, play or attend school and is often a source ofparental anxiety. However, an etiology of cough is not always easily identified even after a thoroughsystematic investigation and psychological and neurological conditions are in the differential diagnosis.Psychogenic cough is diagnosed in cases without a clear pulmonary or extrapulmonary etiology in thepresence of some suggestive clinical characteristics and/or an association with psychological issue.Psychogenic cough has been reported to be the second most common cause of chronic cough in children ofage 6-16 years.Methodology: The present paper highlights four case reports of children who presented with symptoms ofpsychogenic cough in the OPD of CNBC hospital, Delhi.The presenting nature of the symptoms alongwith the underlying psychological factors have been discussed. Cognitive Behavioural techniques likedistraction and cognitive restructuring interventions with the children along with family interventions wereused.Conclusions: All the children showed significant improvement at the end of therapy. Three month followup showed that the results were maintained. Cognitive Behavioural approaches are found to be effective inmanaging psychogenic cough and the present paper highlights the process of cognitive behaviouralmanagement of psychogenic cough in children.Key words cognitive behavior therapy, cough,