Combo inhaler simplifies asthma management
Chronic asthma patients can have a new treatment option capable of allowing them to effectively manage their condition with a single prescribed inhaler that contains two medicines, as per a recently concluded review.
Presently, patients suffering from asthma depend upon use of maintenance or preventive medication on a regular basis for controlling symptoms and improving lung function.
The review appeared in an issue of The Cochrane Library, a publication of The Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates research in all aspects of health care.
From Sciencedaily.com:
The Cochrane reviewers found no significant reduction in the number of asthma exacerbations that required hospitalization among the patients who used single inhaler therapy.
However, the reviewers did find that fewer adults on single inhaler therapy had exacerbations needing a course of oral corticosteroids. Compared with 18 people of 100 in the control inhaled corticosteroid group who had an exacerbation treated with oral steroids over 11 months, there were 11 of 100 for the single inhaler therapy group.
“One attraction of the combined inhalers is that the inhaled corticosteroid is automatically taken with the beta-agonist, which does relieve symptoms,” said Cates. “Single-inhaler therapy takes this one stage further, as the inhaled corticosteroid is automatically increased, with the beta-agonist, if the asthma symptoms worsen. This approach shows clear advantages in comparison to taking inhaled corticosteroids alone, but is less convincing when compared to current best practice.”
It was remarked by Carlos Camargo, M.D., an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and specializing in asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, that the single inhaler therapy can be termed as an interesting and new approach to chronic asthma treatment.
