This article is a review of the literature on habit cough, tic cough and psychogenic cough.  For pediatric data, articles were identified dating from 1966 to February 2005 using searches of several data bases. 

What the authors found was that the literature was chock full of inconsistent rigor and methodologies for diagnosing and treating these coughs.  Given this, they recommend the following for children:

1.  For children with chronic cough, the diagnoses of “habit cough” or “psychogenic cough” should only be made after tic disorders and Tourette Syndrome have been evaluated and after cough has improved with behavior modification or psychiatric therapy.

2.  In children with chronic cough, the characteristics of the cough may be suggestive of psychogenic cough, but they are never diagnostic of psychogenic cough.  The presence or absence of nighttime cough should not be used to diagnose or exclude psychogenic cough. 

3.  Common psychosocial problems such as anxiety, depression, domestic violence, and child abuse/neglect that are often associated with somatization disorders should be evaluated, when there is a chronic unexplained cough.  

(Irwin RS, et al. Chest 2006; 129:174S-179S.)     – H.T.