Legend Omitted and Number Misrepresented

(about $2 for 4 oz in the 1980s) may regrettably be gone Cost-Conscious Cough Control forever, but perhaps some large Health Maintenance Or- ganization will realize how much money they could save he study “Impact of Chronic Cough on Quality with it and thus finance the study. of Life,” by French et al1 in the August 10/24, Lastly, although we all know what French et al mean, 1998, issue of the ARCHIVES is a welcome addi- “achiness” (see Tables 2 and 4 in their article) is not in my T dictionary. Maybe it’s in the Oxford English Dictionary. tion to a growing trend of taking into consideration things that bother people and not just things that might kill them anytime soon. The chief complaint (eg, cough) is para- Larry R. Kirkland, MD mount to the patient; but after serious causes have been Atlanta, Ga eliminated, too many physicians lose interest and forget 1. French CL, Irwin RS, Curley FJ, Krikorian CJ. Impact of chronic cough on to treat the symptom adequately, as the authors note. Ob- quality of life. Arch Intern Med. 1998;158:1657-1661. viously, specific diseases should be treated specifically whenever possible, but what about those few (but not rare) patients who continue to hack after treatment, or Cough Suppressants the lingering cough after a viral upper respiratory tract Per 5-mL Dose infection (other causes having been excluded)? They want Generic Retail a simple cough suppressant, which brings me to the main Generic Name Suppressant Other Price, 4 oz point of this letter. (Brand Name) Ingredients in US, $ Whatever happened to “ETH and C”(elixir terpin Hydrocodone syrup Hydrocodone, . . . 10.95 hydrate with codeine, aka, “GI gin”); ie, why was it taken (Hycodan) 5mg off the market? Several telephone calls to the Drug En- Promethazine Codeine, Promethazine, 9.05 forcement Administration a few years ago failed to find with codeine 10 mg 6.25 mg (Phenergan an answer. In my experience, it was safe, well tolerated, with codeine) cheap, and effective. I suspect that the “cheap” part was Guaifenesin syrup Codeine, Guaifenesin, 11.95 its downfall, since no company saw enough money there with codeine 10 mg 100 mg to justify newly required studies on the efficacy of the (Robitussin A-C) terpin hydrate moiety. So what if it was just a delivery Acetaminophen Codeine, Acetaminophen, 10.95 with codeine elixir 12 mg 120 mg system for the codeine? Several agents now available (Tylenol with (Table) are just that, but they skirt the regulations by codeine elixir) throwing in a homeopathic dose of another drug, which does nothing except drive up the price. “ETH and C” *Ellipses indicate there are no other ingredients.

Correction

Legend Omitted and Number Misrepresented. In the Editor’s Correspondence titled “Erythema Migrans in the South” by Edwin J. Masters, MD, published in the October 26 issue of the ARCHIVES (1998;158:2162-2164), the legend to the Figure was acciden- tally omitted during processing for publication. The Figure and legend are reprinted correctly here. In addition, in the first column on page 2163, the sentence that read, “In fact, the probability that some of the results of the tests run...exceeded 25 million to 1” should have read“...were 1 in 25 million.” We regret the errors.

Examples of physician-diagnosed erythema migrans cases from the author’s practice in Missouri.

ARCH INTERN MED/ VOL 158, DEC 7/21, 1998 2515

Downloaded From: https://jamanetwork.com/ on 09/29/2021