The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's National Asthma Education and Prevention Program has developed guidelines to help educate health care providers about current practice in asthma management. The guidelines provide a starting point, but you must individualize care for each patient. For details on asthma classifications and the recommended stepwise treatment, see Managing Asthma, Step by Step. The patient's condition may fluctuate between the four steps, so treatment varies depending on her symptoms and peak flow values. Tell your patient to monitor her symptoms and peak flow values at home and teach her what action to take depending on peak flow values.
Drug therapy is a mainstay of asthma treatment.
Many new asthma medications have been developed in the last 10 years and more are in the works, including genetically engineered drugs. Here's a closer look, starting with maintenance therapy. Maintenance medications for the long haul Maintenance medications include long-acting bronchodilators, corticosteroids, mast cell stabilizers, leukotriene modifiers, and methylxanthines. Bronchodilators cause smooth muscle relaxation of the airways. Because these drugs take up to 30 minutes to work and last 12 hours or longer, they're maintenance medications only and can't be used to treat acute episodes.