“My quality of life has gone from zero to a hundred.”
“I gave your recommendations to my GP, who prescribed the treatment. I’ve now been on it for four weeks. I’m able to sleep all night without waking up 18 times a night to cough and throw up.”
“I can’t thank you enough. I’m so grateful I reached out to you.”
Specialist chronic cough care
We understand chronic cough and the misery it causes.
When coughing interrupts your sleep, work or everyday life, you deserve to be heard. We take the time to understand the whole picture.
Specialist chronic cough care
A consultation, not just a conversation.
Your symptoms. Your history. The things you have already tried. A considered assessment that starts with your experience.
Specialist chronic cough care
A pathway to diagnosis and treatment.
Understand what may be driving your cough, discuss possible treatment options, and agree on the next steps together.
Specialist knowledge. Personal care.
A place to be heard.
A clearer way forward.
Living with chronic cough
People are told they’ve “only got a cough”. It is never only a cough.
Our team has spent years listening to people with chronic cough, in their own words. What they describe is a condition that reaches into every part of life: the body, sleep, work, relationships and peace of mind. Chronic cough means a cough that has lasted more than 8 weeks.
The body
“You’ve only got a cough”
Others rarely see how much damage a constant cough does, from exhaustion to incontinence to cracked ribs.
The mind and social life
“Constant cough and constant worry”
Fear of coughing in public, stares from strangers, and slowly withdrawing from work and friends.
The search for help
“No light at the end of the tunnel”
Years of appointments without answers, and a growing sense that it will never end.
The vicious circle
How a cough takes over a life
People describe the same cycle again and again. Select each stage to hear it in their words, and to see how we try to break it.
A cough that won’t stopand a life that
does
Stage 1 of 5 · The cough
It can start with almost anything.
Talking, laughing, eating, a whiff of perfume, getting out of bed. Triggers are everywhere in ordinary life, and often there is no obvious trigger at all. Every day is different.
-
“Activity. Anything. Getting out of bed, walking to the bathroom, walking to the family, to the kitchen, to washing the dishes.”
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“There’s no rhyme or reason to it you know… so you’ve always got that thought that something could happen.”
How we respond
We map your own triggers and patterns, day and night, so your plan fits the life you actually live.
This sounds dramatic, but it’s a disability because of how it affects every part of your body every day, doing everything, even in the house.
What this means for your care
We built this clinic around what patients told us
Each part of how we work answers something people living with chronic cough have said.
What we hear: “You’ve only got a cough.”
We never treat it as “just a cough”
We ask what your cough stops you doing, not only how often you cough. Sleep, work, family, going out: it all counts.
What we hear: “Just following the protocol.”
Care built around you, not a checklist
No two people with chronic cough are the same. Your plan is shaped around your symptoms, your triggers and your priorities.
What we hear: “I can finally stop searching.”
A clear explanation you can hold on to
People tell us an explanation lifts a burden. We explain what we think is behind your cough, in plain language, and what can be done about it.
What we hear: “Always worried about going out.”
Specialist care from your own home
A virtual clinic means no journey and no waiting room. You can talk to us from wherever you feel most comfortable.
Where these words come from. Quotations are from people living with chronic cough, published in peer-reviewed research. They are shown anonymously and are not testimonials about this clinic.
Brindle K, Morice A, Carter N, et al. The “vicious circle” of chronic cough: the patient experience – qualitative synthesis. ERJ Open Res 2023; 9: 00094-2023. doi.org/10.1183/23120541.00094-2023
Brindle K, Morice A, Hilton A. The lived experience of chronic cough: is it a disability? Conference abstract 59998.
How we help
A calmer path to clearer answers
We listen to your experience, explore possible causes and agree on the next steps together.
1
We listen to your story
Talk through your symptoms, health history and what you have already tried.
2
We explore possible causes
A clinician may recommend suitable investigations where appropriate.
3
We plan your next steps
Discuss findings, treatment options and follow-up in language you can understand.
Patient stories
In patients’ own words
Messages people have sent to Professor Morice, shared with their permission. We have removed names and medicine details.
“The pattern of coughing you describe matches my symptoms exactly.”
“I have suffered from this cough for decades. I am 73. Various GPs have diagnosed COPD and cough variant asthma, but I have never been convinced.”
Everyone’s cough is different, and treatment works differently for each person. These messages describe individual experiences and are not a promise of results.
Our team
The people behind your care
A small team that has spent its working life on one problem: chronic cough. The same people who research it, and who wrote the guidelines on treating it, will look after you.
Clinical lead
Professor Alyn Morice
MA MD FRCP FBPhS
Consultant respiratory physician and Foundation Chair of Respiratory Medicine, Hull York Medical School
Cough has been the focus of Professor Morice’s career. He founded Respiratory Medicine at Hull York Medical School in 1998, and leads the Hull Cough Clinic, a national NHS referral centre for people whose cough has not responded to treatment elsewhere.
His group’s research changed how chronic cough is understood. It showed that for many people the problem lies in oversensitive nerves, a condition now recognised as cough hypersensitivity syndrome. That work has led to new treatments and to the national and international guidelines doctors use today.
- British Thoracic Society Medal 2025, for chronic cough management
- Chaired four European Respiratory Society cough task forces
- Co-chair, ERS NEUROCOUGH research collaborative
- Trained at Cambridge and St George’s
Kayleigh Brindle
Research nurseRespiratory Research Nurse · PhD researcher, University of Hull
A registered nurse since 2009, Kayleigh came to research from a respiratory high dependency unit and has led clinical trials in chronic cough since 2014.
Her PhD at the University of Hull explores what living with chronic cough is really like. It is the work behind the “vicious circle” described above.
Focus: patient experience · cough treatments · spirometry (ARTP/BTS certified)
Dr Mengru Zhang
Research team · 中文Research team, Respiratory Clinical Trials Unit
Mengru completed her medical doctorate at Tongji University, Shanghai, where she also worked in a specialist chronic cough clinic for five years, and completed joint doctoral research with Hull.
She has published widely on reflux-related cough, nerve-calming (neuromodulator) treatments and how cough is measured.
Mengru also supports our Chinese-speaking patients, translating consultations and patient information into Chinese.
Focus: reflux cough · new treatments · cough measurement · Chinese language support
Our expertise
Experience you won’t find in a general clinic
Most doctors see chronic cough occasionally. Our team has studied it for decades, and much of what is now known about it came from Hull.
1998Respiratory research group founded in Hull
4European guideline task forces on cough chaired
83papers published in the last five years
77h-index, a measure of research influence
Understanding the cause
Cough hypersensitivity
Our research helped show that chronic cough is often a problem of over-sensitive cough nerves, set off by everyday triggers like talking, eating or a change in temperature.
For you: an explanation that makes sense of symptoms other clinics may have dismissed.
Setting the standard
The guidelines doctors follow
Professor Morice led the European Respiratory Society guidelines on diagnosing and treating chronic cough, and earlier national guidance.
For you: assessment based on the evidence, from the people who reviewed it.
New treatments
A world-leading trials unit
Our unit has run key trials of new cough medicines, including the P2X3 drugs gefapixant and camlipixant, and studies of low-dose opiates.
For you: up-to-date knowledge of what works, and what is coming next.
Reflux and the airway
Airway reflux
Reflux that rises silently into the throat is a common driver of cough. Our team has worked extensively on how to recognise it from symptoms and how best to treat it.
For you: a careful look at causes that are often missed.
Measuring cough
24-hour cough monitoring
We use ambulatory cough monitors to count coughs objectively, and are developing continuous home monitoring with Philips.
For you: a clear way to see whether treatment is really helping.
The patient voice
Living with cough
Our nurse-led research puts patients’ own words at the centre, showing the full impact of chronic cough on daily life, work and wellbeing.
For you: care that takes the whole burden seriously, not only the cough count.
Selected research from our team
- Morice AH, Millqvist E, Bieksiene K, et al. ERS guidelines on the diagnosis and treatment of chronic cough in adults and children. Eur Respir J 2020;55(1):1901136.
- McGarvey LP, Birring SS, Morice AH, et al. Efficacy and safety of gefapixant in refractory and unexplained chronic cough (COUGH-1 and COUGH-2). Lancet 2022;399:909–23.
- Smith JA, Birring SS, Blaiss MS, McGarvey L, Morice AH, et al. Camlipixant in refractory chronic cough: a phase 2b trial (SOOTHE). Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2025;211(6):1038–48.
- Brindle K, Morice A, Carter N, et al. The “vicious circle” of chronic cough: the patient experience – qualitative synthesis. ERJ Open Res 2023;9:00094-2023.
- Zhang M, Morice AH. Unmet needs and future directions of treatment options for chronic cough. Expert Rev Respir Med 2025;19(7):709–20.
- Song W-J, Manian DV, Kim Y, Zhang M, Morice AH. Cough reflex hypersensitivity as a key treatable trait. J Allergy Clin Immunol Pract 2025;13(3):469–78.
- Sykes DL, Brindle K, Kazmi S, et al. Measuring the effect of azithromycin in chronic respiratory disease using continuous cough monitoring. ERJ Open Res 2026;12(3):00562-2025.
- Zhang M, Brindle K, Robinson M, Ingram D, Cavany T, Morice A. Chronic cough in cystic fibrosis: the effect of modulator therapy on objective 24-hour cough monitoring. ERJ Open Res 2022:00031-2022.
Your next step
Let’s make room for
a proper consultation.
For general questions about the clinic or appointments, email us at:
contact@coughclinic.netEmail opens in your usual email app. Please use this address for general enquiries; we can explain how to share medical information when you get in touch.