CONFLICT OF INTEREST
cough, hypoxemic respiratory failure
ADVERSE EFFECTS, HYPOXEMIC RESPIRATORY FAILURE

Dear Editor:We read the article by Soltani et al. with great interest and appreciate the authors' efforts to prove the effectiveness of gabapentin (GPT) and GPT/montelukast (MTL) combination in comparison with dextromethorphan (DXM) for the improvement of COVID‐19‐related cough.First, in this open‐label trial, the patients and assessors were aware of the treatment assignment, which might have led to bias in reporting and outcome assessment and might have impacted the subjective assessment of the patients and the evaluation of adverse effects by the assessors.Second, the differences in baseline data on smoking history, COVID‐19 treatment, and hypoxemic respiratory failure among the DXM, GPT, and GPT/MTL were not presented in Table 1 of the article.Third, although the RCT demonstrated that the improvements in the BCSS and VAS scores were significantly better in the DXM group than in the GPT or GPT/MTL groups, the conclusion section in the abstract only states the results of the analysis comparing the pre‐intervention and post‐intervention outcomes within the GPT or GPT/MTL groups, which may divert the attention of many readers with access to the abstracts from the statistically insignificant results of the RCT.Shun Ito and Yushi Shimamura have nothing to disclose. Hirotaka Matsumoto received fees from Chugai Pharmaceutical, AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, Taiho Pharmaceutical, Ono Pharmaceutical, and Boehringer Ingelheim.