Focus on asthma: The GINA Approach to Managing Asthma
The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has for the first time approved the use of a dual (ICS/Formoterol) combination treatment to be used as a reliever therapy for people aged 12 and over with the therapy choice situated early in the asthma treatment pathway as an alternative to its current use as a preventer or MART therapy sitting later in traditional treatment pathways.
In the UK, this new therapy option does not yet sit within an approved national guideline as NICE last updated its treatment pathway in 2020. We await a new national asthma guideline but do not anticipate this new joint approach between NICE, BTS and SIGN to publish until 2024.
In the meantime, PCRS has looked to the latest Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) approach to asthma treatment to see how this new approach fits and we have developed a simple algorithm for healthcare practitioners to see where this new treatment option sits.
Myth #3 "I only need my blue inhaler"
The truth is people with asthma need to carry their blue inhaler for emergencies only. Daily preventers will keep symptoms at bay.
Myth #1 "Asthma Is Not a Serious Disease"
"It’s only asthma...” Sound familiar? Many patients wrongly think asthma is not a serious disease.
Myth #2 "Coughing is part and parcel of asthma"
The truth is with the right treatment patients with asthma can lead a normal life.
Myth #4 “I’m just allergic to some things...otherwise I’m ok”
The truth is avoiding 'triggers' can reduce symptoms and taking a blue inhaler, can help to provide short-term relief but they don’t address the underlying problem - inflammation.
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According to the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) asthma control is assessed in two domains: symptom control and risk of adverse outcomes. Poor symptom control is budensome to patients and increases the risk of exacerbations, but patients with good symptom control can still have sev