General Approach for Treating and Managing Asthma
While medications play an essential role in the management of asthma, appropriate management of asthma also involves:
The severity of asthma is classified into four groups: Intermittent, Mild Persistent, Moderate Persistent, and Severe Persistent. Six specific components of severity are used to classify patients. These components are:
Patients can greatly reduce the frequency and severity of asthma attacks by understanding the difference between coping with asthma attacks and controlling the disease over time.
Medications for asthma fall into two categories:
Patients can greatly reduce the frequency and severity of asthma attacks by understanding the difference between coping with asthma attacks and controlling the disease over time. Unfortunately, many patients do not understand the difference between medications that provide rapid short-term relief and those that are used for long-term symptom control. Many patients with moderate or severe asthma overuse their short-term bronchodilator medications and underuse their long-term corticosteroid medications. The overuse of bronchodilators can have serious consequences; not using steroids can lead to permanent lung damage.
These are the signs of well-controlled asthma:
A stepwise approach is recommended for treating asthma. Medications and dosages are increased when needed, and decreased when possible. Based on a patient’s age and asthma severity, there are specific recommendations regarding whether to use long-term control medications and which ones to use. Patient education, environmental control measures, and management of any other conditions are also needed. Doctors may always adjust these recommendations based on a specific patient.
In choosing therapy, doctors must also consider the risk an individual patient has for more severe exacerbations. Factors that may contribute to this include parental history of asthma, atopic dermatitis, and known sensitivity to different allergens or foods. Patients should be reevaluated within 2 - 6 weeks of starting therapy to assess response.
Key points regarding recommendations for adults include:
Source: University of Maryland Medical Center
https://umm.edu/health/medical/reports/articles/asthma-in-adults#ixzz39Xmrds2X
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