Types of medication for Asthma Attack Treatment
There are two kinds of medication for asthma attack treatment: bronchodilators, which reduce spasms and anti-inflammatory medications which reduce airway inflammation.
Immunotherapy is another asthma attack treatment for asthma which is caused by allergens. This treatment modifies your allergic response by repeated exposure to small amounts of allergens.
Quick-relief medicines
Everyone with asthma needs a quick-relief or “rescue” medicine to stop asthma symptoms before they get worse. Short-acting inhaled beta-agonists are the preferred quick-relief medicine. These medicines are bronchodilators. They act quickly to relax tightened muscles around your airways so that the airways can open up and allow more air to flow through.
You should take your quick-relief medicine when you first begin to feel asthma symptoms, such as coughing, wheezing, chest tightness, or shortness of breath. You should carry your quick-relief inhaler with you at all times in case of an asthma attack.
Long-term control drugs
The main goal of most control drugs is to prevent symptoms from occurring in the first place. In general, anyone with persistent asthma — whether mild, moderate, or severe — should take a control drug every day. (Read more about children under age 5.)
Beyond this, the National Asthma Education and Prevention Program recommends that long-term control therapy should be considered in any infant or young child who has had more than three episodes of wheezing in the last year that lasted more than 1 day and affected sleep. They should also be given long-term control therapy if they are at risk for developing asthma. Children are at risk for asthma if they have a parent with asthma or eczema, or two of the following:
* Nasal allergies
* Wheezing apart from colds
* Evidence of allergies on a complete blood count test
Use a Peak Flow Meter
As part of your daily asthma self-management plan, your doctor may recommend that you use a hand-held device called a peak flow meter at home to monitor how well your lungs are working.
You use the peak flow meter by taking a deep breath in and then blowing the air out hard into the peak flow meter. The peak flow meter then gives you a peak flow number that tells you how fast you moved the air out.
