What are cold and cough medicines?

Cold and cough medicines can help relieve symptoms of a common cold. The symptoms of a cold can include a sore throat, stuffy or runny nose, sneezing, and coughing.

You don’t usually need to treat a cold or the cough that it causes. You can’t cure a cold, and antibiotics won’t help you get better. But sometimes the symptoms can keep you awake or cause a lot of discomfort. In that case, cold and cough medicines can sometimes be helpful.

What are the different types of cold and cough medicines?

There are lots of different cold and cough medicines, and they do different things:

• Nasal decongestants – unclog a stuffy nose
• Cough suppressants – quiet a cough
• Expectorants – loosen mucus in your lungs so you can cough it up
• Antihistamines – stop runny noses and sneezing
• Pain relievers – ease fever, headaches, and minor aches and pains