We must urgently rethink prescribing short-acting bronchodilators for asthma

摘要

As a pharmacist, when I see people with asthma living their lives to the full - knowing that I have made a meaningful difference - 1 feel amazing. There is no greater satisfaction in my role than seeing a smiling patient, who feeds back that they know how each of their medicines works, including their preventer inhaler, and that they can optimise the delivery of their medicines through good inhaler technique. For patients on regular preventer treatment, a short-acting beta-2 bronchodilator (SABA) can be used infrequently when a patient experiences wheeze, chest tightness, breathlessness and cough; and can save lives in an emergency asthma attack situation.