Two drugs are better than one for asthma control: study

By Krystnell Storr NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People with asthma are likely to benefit from combining medications to manage their symptoms, a strategy that requires doctors and patients to work together to tweak prescriptions, Dutch researchers say. Based on a review of data from 64 asthma drug trials, the new study found that patients using inhaled corticosteroids with a long-acting bronchodilator had about half as many symptom flare ups and asthma attacks as those just on the steroids. “There were some things we expected beforehand, like that oral therapies would be inferior to inhaled steroids, but asthma is a very individual disease and some patients will not experience any symptoms and other patients will suffer a lot from the symptoms,” said lead author Dr. Rik Loijmans, from the Academic Medical Center at the University of Amsterdam. Although the worst breathing problems associated with asthma usually occur in episodes or “attacks,” the problem of a sensitive, swelling airway is constant.



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