Cough Medicine Stopped Hiccups

Q. I had hiccups every ten seconds by the clock. I tried all the tricks but the hiccups just would not stop.
I saw the doctor on the second day and he pulled out his reference book. The cure was benzonatate. Within two days I had no more hiccups. This drug really did the job. My home drug book says it works on the cough center of the brain.
A. Thanks for sharing your experience. When hiccups last that long, they can be extremely painful and disruptive. It is important for a physician to make sure nothing serious is causing the problem.
Benzonatate (Tessalon) is a non-narcotic prescription cough medicine. It is thought to work through a local anesthetic action, suppressing the cough reflex. We could find no studies of its use against persistent hiccups, but it is occasionally used off-label for this purpose.