If you are wondering why your asthma drug was changed to another, you can find the answers here.
- Help Reduce Exacerbated Asthma Symptoms
Your doctor can usually change your medication to help relieve asthma symptoms by reducing airway hyperresponsiveness and swelling. This may mean that you will be prescribed a new type of drug or an additional drug.
This can happen in the following cases:
- Have you contacted your doctor about worsening asthma symptoms?
- You have recently had an asthma attack and need other medicines to stop the attack again
What to do next:
- If your drug was changed for one of these reasons, you should start therapy with a new one. Assess the symptoms of asthma: it is likely that you will cough less often or your wheezing will decrease and you will feel better.
- If your healthcare provider notices that you are using your symptomatic inhaler more than you should
The need for overuse of an emergency drug is a wake-up call to your doctor that asthma therapy needs to be reassessed. Your doctor will prescribe a different regular asthma medication to help control airway inflammation and reduce asthma symptoms.
This could happen if:
- You use your asthma inhaler 3 or more times a week or more, or use 12 inhalers (balloons) per year (if you have this situation, do not wait for the next scheduled doctor’s consultation, make an appointment to assess the course of asthma).
What to do next:
- Keep track of how often you use your emergency inhaler for asthma. The main goal of prescribing a new drug for regular asthma therapy is to reduce the severity of asthma symptoms, and therefore reduce the need for emergency inhaler use. If you are taking a new regular asthma medication but still need to use your symptomatic inhaler three or more times a week, we recommend that you make an appointment with your doctor.
- To provide you with a more effective inhalation device (with the same drug inside)
This may happen if:
- You were having trouble using your inhaler properly and your doctor or nurse thought you might find it easier to use a different inhaler device.
- Your asthma symptoms have gotten worse, so you need a different inhaler device that will allow you to use a higher dose of the same drug you were taking before.
What to do next:
- Get to know your new inhaler with easy-to-follow application videos.
- To cut health care costs
Different companies make substitutes for the most commonly used inhalers, and some may be cheaper for the national health system.
This may happen if:
- You are using an older or more expensive drug
What to do next:
- Check the doses of the drug – are they different now? This is really important, and the main thing is to consult your doctor if you notice that the brand of the drug has changed.
- Ask for instructions on how to use your new inhaler or watch the simple instructional videos prepared.
- Contact your doctor if you think something is wrong with you. If you are unable to use a new drug/inhalation device, you can always ask your doctor to re-prescribe the original drug you have been taking .