A Comparison of the Effect of Honey, Dextromethorphan, and Diphenhydramine on Nightly Cough and Sleep Quality in Children and Their Parents
Publication: The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine
Volume 16, Issue Number 7
Abstract
Objectives: Coughing is a prevalent symptom of upper respiratory infections (URIs) that cause disturbance in the sleep of children and their parents. There is as yet no reliable treatment to control URIs and their related cough; however, drugs such as dextromethorphan (DM) and diphenhydramine (DPH) are now mainly used in the world. The aim of this study is to compare the effect of honey, DM, and DPH on the nightly cough and sleep quality of children and their parents.
Design: This was a clinical trial study in which 139 children aged 24–60 months suffering from coughing due to URIs were selected and assigned randomly to 4 groups. The first group received honey (HG), the second one DM (DMG), the third DPH (DPHG), but the fourth group or control group (CG) was assigned to a supportive treatment.
Outcome measures: After approximately a 24-hour intervention, the 4 groups were reexamined and their cough frequency, cough severity, and sleep quality in children and their parents were recorded by using the questionnaire with Likert-type questions.
Results: The mean of cough frequency score HG is 4.09 ± 0.72 and 1.93 ± 0.65 before and after the intervention, respectively, while these figures for the CG are 4.11 ± 0.78 and 3.11 ± 0.57, respectively. After the intervention, the difference of the mean score of the variables in all groups became statistically significant. The mean score of all variables in HG has stood significantly higher than those in other groups. There is also a significant relationship between the DMG and CG groups, even though there is no statistically difference between DMG and DPHG groups.
Conclusions: The result of the study demonstrated that receiving a 2.5-mL dose of honey before sleep has a more alleviating effect on URIs-induced cough compared with DM and DPH doses.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine
Volume 16 • Issue Number 7 • July 2010
Pages: 787 - 793
PubMed: 20618098
Copyright
Copyright 2010, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.
History
Published online: 20 July 2010
Published ahead of print: 12 July 2010
Published in print: July 2010
Authors
Disclosure Statement
The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest. This study was fully funded by the Department of Research Administration, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences (SSUMS) in Yazd, Iran.
Dr. Mahmood Noori Shadkam is a scientific member of the Pediatric Department at SSUMS that participated in case selection and supervising the study. Dr. Hassan Mozaffari-Khosravi is a Senior Lecturer in the Human Nutrition Department at SSUMS and facilitated with the designing, data analysis, and writing the manuscript. Mohammad Reza Mozayan facilitated with writing the manuscript. All of authors are employed by SSUMS and all critically reviewed the manuscript and approved the final version submitted for publication.
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