An Adolescent Female with a Resistant Barking Cough: Challenges Faced in Diagnosis and Management

Somatic cough syndrome is a frequently overlooked cause of chronic cough. Most cases are concentrated in the pediatric or adolescent age groups. This case report describes a 16-year-old female suffering from somatic cough syndrome. The patient presented with complaints of cough for the past 9 months...

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Main Authors: Aakanksha Kharb, Anand Agrawal, Sunny Garg, Devinder Kumar, Jogender Singh
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications 2025-07-01
Series:Journal of Advanced Lung Health
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.lww.com/10.4103/jalh.jalh_45_23
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author Aakanksha Kharb
Anand Agrawal
Sunny Garg
Devinder Kumar
Jogender Singh
author_facet Aakanksha Kharb
Anand Agrawal
Sunny Garg
Devinder Kumar
Jogender Singh
author_sort Aakanksha Kharb
collection DOAJ
description Somatic cough syndrome is a frequently overlooked cause of chronic cough. Most cases are concentrated in the pediatric or adolescent age groups. This case report describes a 16-year-old female suffering from somatic cough syndrome. The patient presented with complaints of cough for the past 9 months which was sudden in onset, progressive, nonproductive, and interfering with her daily routine activities and had a characteristic barking feature. Her general physical, systemic examination, and investigations were unremarkable. She did not show improvement with multiple trials of bronchodilators, antitussive medications, and antibiotics. On psychiatric evaluation, it was found that 9 months back, the patient had a stressful event at school. Then, she was started on suggestion therapy, and later, psychotropics were also added. As there was only mild improvement, the patient was planned for cerebral aversion to electrical stimuli. She showed significant improvement after the three sessions. Her response was sustained for the next year on follow-ups. This case emphasizes the need for a multidisciplinary approach for the early detection, and management of this challenging illness for better results for such patients.
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institution Kabale University
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language English
publishDate 2025-07-01
publisher Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications
record_format Article
series Journal of Advanced Lung Health
spelling doaj-art-41d5a3ca0218457bbfaa569d4a8a5e662025-08-20T03:31:33ZengWolters Kluwer Medknow PublicationsJournal of Advanced Lung Health2772-71652772-71732025-07-015315315610.4103/jalh.jalh_45_23An Adolescent Female with a Resistant Barking Cough: Challenges Faced in Diagnosis and ManagementAakanksha KharbAnand AgrawalSunny GargDevinder KumarJogender SinghSomatic cough syndrome is a frequently overlooked cause of chronic cough. Most cases are concentrated in the pediatric or adolescent age groups. This case report describes a 16-year-old female suffering from somatic cough syndrome. The patient presented with complaints of cough for the past 9 months which was sudden in onset, progressive, nonproductive, and interfering with her daily routine activities and had a characteristic barking feature. Her general physical, systemic examination, and investigations were unremarkable. She did not show improvement with multiple trials of bronchodilators, antitussive medications, and antibiotics. On psychiatric evaluation, it was found that 9 months back, the patient had a stressful event at school. Then, she was started on suggestion therapy, and later, psychotropics were also added. As there was only mild improvement, the patient was planned for cerebral aversion to electrical stimuli. She showed significant improvement after the three sessions. Her response was sustained for the next year on follow-ups. This case emphasizes the need for a multidisciplinary approach for the early detection, and management of this challenging illness for better results for such patients.https://journals.lww.com/10.4103/jalh.jalh_45_23habitual coughpsychogenic coughpsychophysiologic disorderssomatic coughsomatoform disordertic cough
spellingShingle Aakanksha Kharb
Anand Agrawal
Sunny Garg
Devinder Kumar
Jogender Singh
An Adolescent Female with a Resistant Barking Cough: Challenges Faced in Diagnosis and Management
Journal of Advanced Lung Health
habitual cough
psychogenic cough
psychophysiologic disorders
somatic cough
somatoform disorder
tic cough
title An Adolescent Female with a Resistant Barking Cough: Challenges Faced in Diagnosis and Management
title_full An Adolescent Female with a Resistant Barking Cough: Challenges Faced in Diagnosis and Management
title_fullStr An Adolescent Female with a Resistant Barking Cough: Challenges Faced in Diagnosis and Management
title_full_unstemmed An Adolescent Female with a Resistant Barking Cough: Challenges Faced in Diagnosis and Management
title_short An Adolescent Female with a Resistant Barking Cough: Challenges Faced in Diagnosis and Management
title_sort adolescent female with a resistant barking cough challenges faced in diagnosis and management
topic habitual cough
psychogenic cough
psychophysiologic disorders
somatic cough
somatoform disorder
tic cough
url https://journals.lww.com/10.4103/jalh.jalh_45_23
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