CICADA: Cough in Children and Adults: Diagnosis and Assessment. Australian Cough Guidelines summary statement

In reply: The recently published CICADA cough guidelines1 draw attention to the important role of systematic assessment of chronic cough in children and adults, and provide an appraisal of the evidence that treating specific conditions will improve cough. Mullins and colleagues raise a key point that requires emphasis, and is relevant beyond the instance of allergic rhinitis that they cite. Chronic cough is associated with several common conditions, such as allergic rhinitis, asthma, gastro-oesophageal reflux disease and sleep apnoea. For each of these conditions, there are well established treatment guidelines that describe the effectiveness of treating that primary condition.