Patients with asthma are reminded of the increased risk of severe asthma attacks from overusing blue inhalers
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has put out a reminder for healthcare professionals and patients with asthma that overuse of blue inhalers (short-acting beta 2 agonists or SABAs), without use of a preventer inhaler, may lead to worsening symptoms or serious asthma attacks.
These reminders follow updates to product information and the NICE - National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance for SABAs.
The advice for healthcare professionals is:
- excessive use of SABA to relieve acute asthma symptoms may mask progression of the underlying disease and contribute to an increased risk of severe and potentially life-threatening asthma exacerbations
- do not prescribe SABA to people of any age with asthma without a concomitant prescription of an inhaled corticosteroid (see Asthma: diagnosis, monitoring and chronic asthma management (BTS, NICE, SIGN) NICE guideline [NG245], 2024)
- ensure all patients with asthma receive optimal anti-inflammatory maintenance therapy even when their asthma is well controlled and that treatment is individualised to the patient
- review and adjust asthma treatment in patients who take more than twice weekly “as needed” SABA
- urgently review patients where there has either been an increase in the number of prescriptions requested for SABA reliever inhalers or a failure to collect prescribed anti-inflammatory maintenance treatment
- anti-inflammatory reliever (AIR) therapy and maintenance and reliever therapy (MART) are recommended alternatives for people over 12 years of age with poorly controlled asthma[footnote 1]
- report suspected adverse drug reactions associated with fezolinetant via the Yellow Card scheme
Read the advice for healthcare professionals to provide to patients: and the full update here.
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