OTC medicines are medicines you can buy at a drugstore without a prescription from your doctor. There are 2 types of OTC cough medicines: antitussives and expectorants. Antitussives are cough suppressants. They relieve your cough by blocking the cough reflex. Expectorants thin mucus. This may help your cough clear the mucus from your airway. Drinking extra fluids also helps keep mucus thin.
Dextromethorphan and guaifenesin are sometimes combined with each other 1 brand name: Robitussin DM. They are also available in combination with other medicines, such as pain relievers, decongestants, or antihistamines.
These combination products such as multi-symptom cold medicines are meant to treat many symptoms at the same time. However, if your main symptom is cough, be careful of the drying effect of antihistamines and decongestants in combination medicines.
This effect can make mucus thicker and harder to clear from the airways, which can make a cough worse. Health Tools help you make wise health decisions or take action to improve your health. This information does not replace the advice of a doctor. Healthwise, Incorporated disclaims any warranty or liability for your use of this information. Your use of this information means that you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Learn How this information was developed.
To learn more about Healthwise, visit Healthwise. All rights reserved. Healthwise, Healthwise for every health decision, and the Healthwise logo are trademarks of Healthwise, Incorporated. Top of the page. Topic Overview Coughing is your body's way of getting foreign substances and mucus out of your lungs and upper airway passages.
Drink fluids to keep from getting dehydrated. Water may help loosen mucus and soothe an irritated throat. Dry, hacking coughs may respond to honey in hot water, tea, or lemon juice. Do not give honey to children younger than 1 year of age. Elevate your head with extra pillows at night to ease a dry cough. Try a cough drop to soothe an irritated throat. Expensive medicine-flavoured cough drops are not any better than inexpensive candy-flavoured ones or hard candy.
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Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. The two different types of over-the-counter OTC cough medications are expectorants and suppressants , each of which works differently. Which cough medication or combination medication is right for you depends on the type of cough you're experiencing, the totality of your symptoms, your overall health, and what other medications you may be taking.
OTC cough medications can provide much-needed relief. But if you've been coughing for several days or your cough is severe, contact your healthcare provider to see if you need a different medication or another type of treatment entirely. Expectorants help thin mucus so you can cough it out of your lungs more easily. These medications are useful when you have thick congestion and are having a hard time expelling it on your own. When mucus sits in your lungs, it can contribute to bacterial infections, including pneumonia.
Coughing can clear out the mucus and help prevent this, so it's possible that an expectorant could help prevent infection as well. The drug guaifenesin is the only expectorant that's approved by the U. It's available as a generic drug and in multiple brand-name products, including:. Cough suppressants are a class of cough medicine that help you stop coughing.
The medical community debates the effectiveness and usefulness of these medicines. First, there's little evidence that they actually work.
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