Dr. Shafran Says Think Twice Before Taking Cough Medicine

Your child can't sleep because of a nasty cough due to a cold. So you like every caring parent who doesn't want their kid to suffer, you go to the local pharmacy and pick up some cough medicine. But are you really helping? According to Dr. Edward Schulman, representative from the cough guidelines committee for the American College of Chest Physicians, you are probably better off drinking lots of fluids and having chicken soup. Over-the-counter cough syrups generally contain drugs in too low a dose to be effective, or contain combinations of drugs that have never been proven to treat coughs, said Dr. Richard Irwin, chairman of a cough guidelines committee for the American College of Chest Physicians.