Before taking a bronchodilator, you should know the following:
Asthma medicines come in two types: quick-relief and long-term control. Quick-relief medicines control the symptoms of an asthma attack. If you need to use your quick-relief medicines more and more, visit your doctor to see if you need a different medicine. Long-term control medicines help you have fewer and milder attacks, but they don’t help you while you are having an asthma attack.
Asthma medicines can have side effects, but most side effects are mild and soon go away. Ask your doctor about the side effects of your medicines.
Most long-term controller medications for asthma need to be taken every day for asthma prevention.
Inhaled corticosteroids, including fluticasone (Flovent Diskus, Flovent HFA), mometasone (Asmanex), beclomethasone (Qvar), budesonide (Pulmicort Flexhaler), ciclesonide (Alvesco) and others, are the most commonly prescribed long-term asthma remedy. Compared to oral corticosteroids, inhaled corticosteroids have a relatively low risk of side effects and are usually safe for long-term use in normal doses. It usually takes several days or weeks for these medications to start working.
Salmeterol (Serevent Diskus) and formoterol (Foradil Aerolizer) are two bronchodilators in a class of medications known as long-acting beta agonists (LABAs). When used with an inhaled corticosteroid, these drugs help control asthma symptoms. There are also devices available that contain both a LABA and an inhaled (anti-inflammatory) corticosteroid (Advair, Symbicort, Dulera).
Theophylline (Uniphyl), another type of slow-acting bronchodilator, is prepared in a slow-release form taken by mouth. Although not used as frequently as it used to be in the past, theophylline is sometimes used for persistent asthma symptoms, particularly nighttime asthma.
Women may not need to stop taking asthma medication during pregnancy. Most medications that are used for mild to moderate asthma are safe in pregnancy. Inhaled medications are almost always safe, and should be continued. If a woman has severe asthma and uses medications by mouth, she should talk with her doctor before becoming pregnant or as soon as pregnancy is discovered.
