Objective: Chronic cough, which is defined as a cough that continues for more than eight weeks, affects about 9.6% of adults throughout the world. Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) treat chronic cough using cough suppression therapy (CST), an 8-week program consisting of education, psychoeducational counseling, cough suppression strategies, and reducing laryngeal irritation. This study investigates if order of presentation of treatment components changes outcomes and if one component of cough therapy contributes more to improvement.

Methods/Design: Seventeen participants were randomized into two groups. The first group learned behavioral substitution cough suppression strategies and laryngeal control breathing strategies at the first session. They then learned acid suppression diet and lifestyle modifications to reduce laryngeal irritation at the second session two weeks later. The second group was assigned the same protocol, but the order of treatment was reversed. All participants attended two follow up sessions to explore long term CST benefits. Education and psychoeducational counseling were incorporated throughout each session. Treatment occurred over 8 weeks with data collection occurring at baseline and every two weeks.

Results/Conclusions: Results of this study will include descriptive and inferential statistics examining patient-reported comorbidities, adherence, and change in cough, reflux symptoms, laryngeal sensitivity, and cough severity. Responses to semi-structured interview questions regarding experience with chronic cough and CST will be analyzed for emergent themes using qualitative content analysis. Findings will report the relationship between CST components, their order of presentation, comorbidities, adherence, and improvement. The findings will inform future research on behavioral and dietary interventions and best clinical practice for chronic cough.