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What Causes Persistent Dry Cough At Night?

Posted on Mon, 2 Jan 2017

Question: I have had a dry cough that is persistent and constant keeping me up at night. I was told that my lungs are clear, and that it is probably a viral cold of some kind. My nasal passages are moderately clogged and I imaine that there is some nasal drip. I have been prescribed Benzonatate 200mg to take during the daytime, once every 8 hours, and then 5ml IC Iophen-C NR liquid. The Benzonatate seems to help, but not perfectly, and the 5ml dose of Iophen does nothing. I need to sleep. :-( I have an a prior prescription from a year back for Mirtazapine and was considering using that to help me sleep but do not want to take too many medications that may counteract. My question is can I increase the dose of Iophen to 10ml and take it every 4 hours over night and of course not take the Benzonatate until the morning?

Answered by Dr. Anshul Varshney (2 hours later)

Brief Answer:
Allergic cough

Detailed Answer:
Welcome to Healthcaremagic.
Hi, I am Dr Anshul Varshney , I have read your query in detail , I understand your concern.
This cough is allergic in nature, and the medicines you are taking are cough suppressants and not the anti allergics.

You would need to take a combination of Levocetrizine and Montelukast for this purpose.

Now as far as your query is concerned, you can take 10 ml of lophen in night time once only. You should avoid it 4th hourly in night, as it contains codeine which is a narcotic and can cause excessive sedation, constipation and addiction.

However, you may repeat the doses in the morning.

This is my personal opinion based on details available here. If you still have any other query, you may please ask me.
Stay Healthy.
Dr Anshul Varshney , MD

Note: For more detailed guidance, please consult an Internal Medicine Specialist, with your latest reports. Click here..

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Remy Koshy