Common Treatments for Common Colds: A Pilot Study

INTERVENTION: Nasal saline spray administered at least 4 times per day in addition to usual care (excluding other nasal decongestants) until resolution of symptoms (considered the first day they are no longer troublesome and participants answer "yes" to the question "Are you well again?") or for 6 weeks, whichever comes first. CONDITION: Common cold and acute rhinosinusitus PRIMARY OUTCOME: Number of days until the return of wellness, indicated by the patient's assessment of the first day of wellbeing. Patients will be asked to fill in a patient diary at the end of each day to indicate the severity of their symptoms that day and answer the question "Are you well again?". SECONDARY OUTCOME: Severity and duration of troublesome nasal stuffiness or rhinorrhea, cough, or malaise. This will be assessed via patient self‐report on the severity of symptoms each day on a 4 point scale (0=Normal/not present, 1=Slight problem, 2=Moderate, 3=Severe). acceptabilty and feasibility of study processes to patients, general practitioners and practice nurses. Patient satisfaction with their involvement in the study and, for the nasal saline group, use of the study medication, will be assessed at the time of the final follow‐up phone call by asking for patient feedback. GPs and practice staff will similarly be asked to indicate satisfaction with their participation in the study in a telephone or face‐to‐face conversation. antibiotic use ‐ participants will indicate each day on their patient diary whether they took antibiotics that day. INCLUSION CRITERIA: patients >= 2 years of age presenting to a participating General Practitioner (GP) with common cold with symptoms of runny nose, sore throat, sneezing, cough, lethargy etc, or acute rhinosinusitus. For inclusion, participants must have had symptoms for =5 days and =3 weeks.