For two months, a 9-year-old girl let out a barking cough in bursts every 30 seconds to a minute. She was hospitalized, treated with antihistamines and steroids, and given a CT scan of her lungs and an allergy profile. Nothing explained it until doctors began asking about her life at school and at home.
Her case, reported in the Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine by clinicians at the Institute of Neurosciences in Kolkata, India, was diagnosed as psychogenic cough with an underlying anxiety disorder. A 2025 case from Turkey shows the same diagnostic detour is still happening.
