07 Dec 2022
Gabapentin (another name used for Neurontin) belongs to the group of an anticonvulsant that is used to treat partial strokes, neuropathic pain caused by shingles, and restless leg syndrome. It is the first-ever medicine to treat nerve pain because of diabetic neuropathy, postherpetic neuralgia, and central pain. Moreover, it works on chemical messengers in your brain and nerves and is also used to treat other medical conditions, such as chronic cough.
Cough gradually happens and it is often a common issue in many peoples life. After the Pandemic cough has become a major sign of covid hence a small action of coughing displays different things. In this blog, you will first understand the reasons for chronic cough and how Gabapentin helps in treatment. Lets get to the core!
What Are The Primary Reasons for Chronic Cough?
Cough is not a disease but a symptom resulting from other medical conditions. Mostly coughing is a short period symptom that is the result of catching a cold or flu. It lasts no longer than a few days or hardly a week, and then you will start feeling better.
A cough gets chronic when it lasts longer than weeks, months, or even a year. This is something severe and should not be easy.
Causes
Some fundamental causes that lead to chronic cough are as follows:
- Asthma (particularly cough-variant asthma, in which cough is the leading symptom)
- Pneumonia, acute or chronic bronchitis
- Smoking
- Heart failure & lungs cancer
- Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD)
- Whooping cough (which is a bacterial infection)
- Interstitial lung disease
- Cystic fibrosis
- Inhibitors that used for the treatment of high blood pressure
Symptoms
There are a few symptoms that will tell you whether your cough is chronic or not:
- Sore throat, stuffed or runny nose
- Heartburn
- Shortness of breath
- Croaking voice
If you have any of these symptoms with a cough, your cough must be chronic, and you should immediately seek a doctor’s assistance.
The overstimulated nerves in our nervous system deal with preventing cough; these nerves start to malfunction when the patient suffers from a severe disease (such as asthma, pneumonia, etc.), and eventually, the patient’s cough becomes a chronic cough.
Gabapentin works by calming these overstimulated nerves and treating the cough pain (which is heavy chest pain in the chest and throat due to chronic cough). So, the gabapentin drug is more suitable for treating chronic cough.
Experimental Results
A Study was conducted on 60-65 patients suffering from chronic coughs of at least eight to ten weeks in Australia. Gabapentin and placebo were given , gabapentin was induced at tolerably dosage (1800mg). In This Study the primary endpoint was change in the quality of life after the improvement in cough effect.
Half of the patients were given a placebo, and the other half was given Gabapentin. The effect was studied and analyzed.
The results presented that patients who took Gabapentin against chronic cough got an excellent recovery than those who took the placebo.
(Shi G, Shen Q, Zhang C, Ma J, Mohammed A, Zhao H.)
How Much Gabapentin Should You Take for Cough?
Gabapentin drug comes in capsules as well as tablets. These forms vary in doses, as pills are available in 100mg, 300mg, and 400 mg doses, whereas tablets are available in 600 mg or 800 mg doses.
If you are an adult (children above age 12 years), it is advised to take a 300mg dose of Gabapentin three times per day (if you are taking a capsule), or you may take a 600mg tablet twice a day.
In the case of children below the age of 12 years, it is advised to give them a 100mg capsule three times a day (You can open the tablet from the center, put the powder in the spoon, mix it with water, and give it to the children).
Because symptoms and causes of chronic cough vary from person to person, you should consult the doctor first so he will prescribe the dose according to your situation.
How Long Does Gabapentin Take to Heal?
The time gabapentin takes to heal a cough depends on the severity of your symptom and how it affects your immune system. Generally, the drug takes two weeks to recover from symptoms, but if your cough is too severe with some serious disease to be the cause of it, the healing time may be exceeded.
In some situations, doctors may start your treatment by giving a low dose (i.e.300 mg three times per day) and then slowly increase the amount to 600mg based on your body’s reaction to the medicine. This procedure is also time-consuming, and your body may take a long time to recover.
Can We Use Gabapentin To Heal COVID-19 Cough Too?
COVID-19 cough differs from other chronic coughs as it is dry and doesn’t produce mucus. Dry cough is tough to treat compared to other cough symptoms; once it starts, you will not get rid of it too quickly. Gabapentin drug is not only suitable for chronic coughs, but it is the best drug to treat COVID-19 cough as well.
Patients with COVID-19 should take Gabapentin 300mg capsules three times a day. This may take some time as the dry cough recovers slowly, but this drug will completely recover you from the COVID-19 cough. PLease use it if it is prescribed by the doctor. (Wiley)
Conclusion
Chronic cough has been identified as a neuropathic disorder and hence gabapentin is a treatment for neuropathic pain or related. To fulfill this the study also threw a positive shade towards efficacy of gabapentin in chronic cough.
This blog has suggested Gabapentin suitability for treating chronic and COVID-19 coughs. At the same time, it is better to ask your doctor first and start treating your symptoms.
In the end, it is advised you to not ignore your cough symptoms and take your health too lightly, as your ignorance may be the reason for other destructive diseases. For the treatment medicine is available online as well as you can get gabapentin over the counter with prescription.
