Drug Therapy

Depending on the severity of your asthma, your doctor will choose certain kinds of medicines for you. We like to think of medication for asthma as CPR -- Control, Prevention, and Rescue.

Control Medications

Control medications are meant to do just that -- control your asthma. Control medicines decrease or prevent the inflammation or redness and swelling in your airways and are called anti-inflammatory medications. They are first line treatment for long-term control of persistent (mild persistent, moderate persistent, or severe persistent) levels of asthma. These medications are usually taken daily. As always, you should discuss frequency and dosage with your doctor.

Prevention Medications

Prevention medications help prevent asthma symptoms from occurring. They differ from control medications in that they do not decrease inflammation. Prevention medications may be used in conjunction with control medications so that the asthmatic can gain better control over over sensitivity, or twitchiness, in the airways.

Rescue Medications

Rescue medications give quick relief from asthma symptoms like coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath, and/or chest tightness. Rescue medications generally begin to provide relief within five minutes of administration and their effects usually lasts for about four to six hours. Rescue medications are often used before exercise to keep from having problems. If you are using rescue medications more than twice weekly for symptoms, more than twice monthly for nighttime symptoms, or more than two canisters per year, your asthma is not well controlled and you should discuss this with your doctor.