The common cold is the most common acute respiratory tract infection. Adults suffer from colds 2-6 times a year on average, and children 6-8 times a year on average. The onset of the disease is often rapid in winter and spring, and the early symptoms are mainly nasal, including sneezing, nasal congestion, clear watery nasal discharge, initial throat discomfort or dryness, itching or burning sensation. 2-3 days later, it turns into thick snot, sore throat or hoarseness, sometimes hearing loss, tearing, dull taste, poor inhalation, coughing, small amount of sputum and other symptoms. There is usually no fever and systemic symptoms, or only low fever. In severe cases, in addition to fever, systemic symptoms such as malaise, chills, aching limbs and headache and loss of appetite may be felt. The common cold without complications can generally be cured after 5-7 days. The elderly and children are prone to complications of the cold. Patients with underlying diseases are more clinically severe and prolonged and are prone to complications and prolong the course of illness. The drug treatment of common cold should be based on symptomatic treatment drugs. The types of drugs commonly used in clinical practice are as follows: 1. Decongestants: pseudoephedrine, ephedrine, etc. It can relieve symptoms such as nasal congestion, runny nose and sneezing. Pseudoephedrine can selectively constrict the blood vessels of the upper whistle, and is the most commonly used decongestant for patients with the common cold. These drugs can be taken orally in addition to direct nasal drops or nasal spray, but generally should not be used continuously for more than 7 days. 2, antihistamines: this class of drugs has anti-allergic effect, help eliminate or reduce sneezing and runny nose and other symptoms. First-generation antihistamines, such as chlorpheniramine (paracetamol) and diphenhydramine, help reduce secretions and cough symptoms, so they are recommended as the drugs of choice for the common cold. The antihistamine nasal spray has stronger local effects and fewer systemic adverse effects. 3, cough suppressants: dextromethorphan, is currently the most widely used clinical cough suppressants, non-addictive. A variety of non-prescription compound cough suppressants contain this product. Codeine, with addictive properties, is only used briefly when other treatments are ineffective. 4, expectorants: commonly used expectorants include guaifenesin glycerol ether, ambroxol, bromhexine, acetylcysteine, carboxymethylstilbestrol, etc.; among them, guaifenesin glycerol ether is a commonly used ingredient of compound cold medicines, which can stimulate the gastric mucosa, reflexively cause an increase in airway secretions, reduce viscosity, have a certain effect of diastolic bronchial tubes, and achieve the effect of increasing mucus discharge. Often used in combination with antihistamines, cough suppressants, decongestants. 5, antipyretic and analgesic drugs: mainly for the common cold patients with fever, sore throat and body aches and other symptoms. The class of drugs such as acetaminophen, ibuprofen, etc.. Acetaminophen is one of the more commonly used drugs, but it should be noted that acetaminophen overdose may cause liver damage or even liver necrosis. It has been reported that ibuprofen can increase the severity of infection. Most of the cold medicines on the market today are compounded, containing two or more of the above-mentioned types of drugs or other drugs. Although there are many kinds of drugs for cold and flu, with different names, the ingredients of their formulas are the same or similar, and the drug effects are more or less the same, so only one of the compounded anti-cold drugs should be chosen, such as taking two or more drugs at the same time, which can lead to repeated medication, overdose, and increase the incidence of adverse reactions to the above drugs. For the early cold patients with only nasal symptoms, taking pseudoephedrine hydrochloride and paracetamol on the first day, the symptoms of nasal congestion, runny nose, sneezing and watery eyes improved, and the improvement of the above symptoms reached about 90% after 4 days of taking the drug, indicating that this combination can rapidly improve or eliminate nasal symptoms. Therefore, pseudoephedrine and paracetamol are recommended as a classical combination for the treatment of early colds with nasal symptoms only. When cough, generalized aches and pains, fever and other symptoms appear on top of nasal symptoms, cold medicines containing cough suppressant and antipyretic ingredients are recommended. Treatment: Since cold is a self-limiting disease, medicine for common cold should not exceed 7 days. If the above symptoms are still not significantly improved or disappeared after 1 week, you should go to hospital for clear diagnosis and give further treatment. Common cold is a self-limiting disease, mostly caused by viral infection, antibacterial drugs (commonly known as anti-inflammatory drugs) can not kill the virus, so it is not recommended to use antibacterial drugs to treat the common cold, antibacterial drugs to prevent bacterial infection is ineffective. And the application process of antibacterial drugs will produce digestive side effects, and the abuse of antibacterial drugs is also easy to induce bacterial resistance to occur. The application of antibacterial drugs is only considered when combined with bacterial infections, such as sinusitis, otitis media, pneumonia, etc. There are no specific antiviral drugs for the common cold, so there is no need to use antiviral drugs for the common cold. Overuse of antiviral drugs has a significantly increased risk of associated adverse reactions. Medication for children: Because the safety of over-the-counter cold medications has not been confirmed for use in children under 2 years of age, they should not be used for the common cold in children under 2 years of age. If their symptoms must be controlled by medications, they should use drugs approved for use in young children by the national drug administration.