Physician education focuses on anatomical, physiological, and organic disorders that cause illness. Emphasis is on identifying what is wrong with the body that is causing the patient’s symptoms. When the cause is not identified, medication typically is provided in an attempt to relieve the symptoms. But some symptoms are not caused by corporal dysfunction and do not respond to usual pharmacotherapy. The medical term for those is functional. Among the clinically important functional respiratory disorders is the habit cough. Habit cough has a long history in the medical literature. Unfortunately, habit cough currently often has been associated with inadequate recognition and alternative diagnoses.