Knowing what provokes an asthma attack is critically important in prevention, but it's often difficult or impractical to avoid contact with triggering irritants. Today, however, physicians can prescribe asthma medications to lessen the risk of acute attacks after exposure to an offending irritant, as well as halt attacks that can't be prevented.

Types of Medication

There are two main categories of asthma drugs: short-term, quick-relief medications that relieve asthma symptoms, and long-term controller medications that are used every day by people with persistent asthma, even when they feel fine.  Some drugs do both.

Asthma Medications for Quick Relief of Symptoms

Medications to bring quick relief in acute asthma attacks are chiefly short-acting inhaled bronchodilators that act rapidly but for a relatively brief time to relax bronchial constriction.

There are many short-acting bronchodilators to choose from, including Alupent or Metaprel (metaproterenol), Brethaire (terbutaline), and Ventolin or Proventil (albuterol).  Although these drugs are effective in treating asthma, there is some controversy about their safety, especially when they are overused.

Bronchodilators work to help open the breathing tubes (bronchi), but do not treat the underlying inflammation.  There are both short-acting and long-acting bronchodilators.  Long-acting inhaled bronchodilators, such as Serevent (salmeterol), and long-acting oral bronchodilators, such as Alupent (metaproterenol), Proventil (albuterol sulfate), Theo-24 (theophylline anhydrous), and many others, are often used in conjunction with anti-inflammatory agents to control symptoms.

Scientific debate makes it clear, however, that an increasing need for inhaled bronchodilators, or a decreasing response to each dose, is a signal that the patient's asthma is not being adequately controlled. Patients who have an increasing need for short-acting inhaled bronchodilators should have their asthma medication program reevaluated promptly by their physicians.

Asthma Medications for Long-Term Relief of Symptoms

In light of mounting evidence that asthma is fundamentally an inflammatory disease, asthma authorities today regard asthma medications such as inhaled corticosteroids - marketed under numerous brand names, including Aerobid, Azmacort, Flovent and Pulmicovt - as the most effective agents for controlling airway inflammation and thus preventing acute asthma attacks long term.

Asthma medications such as corticosteroids in pill or tablet form (such as Medrol) and in liquid form for children (such as Pediapred and Prelone) are prescribed long-term for some patients with severe asthma, or short-term for patients with a serious asthma episode.

Other inhaled anti-inflammatory asthma medications include Intal (cromolyn sodium), which is useful in preventing asthma brought on by exercise, and Tilade (nedrocromil sodium).  A new class of oral anti-inflammatory controller drugs acts by blocking a certain part of the inflammation pathway.  This class of "anti-leukotriene" drugs include Zyflo (zileuton), Accolate (zafirlukast) and Singulair (montelukast).

Over-the-Counter Asthma Medications

Both prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) short-acting bronchodilators are available.  Like the prescription drugs, the OTC drugs act only to provide symptom and relief, and they are generally effective for a shorter period.  They may be useful, therefore, as temporary treatment for mild asthma attacks.

Ready availability in drugstores makes the OTC products potentially helpful as a "stopgap" for patients who do not have their prescription asthma medication at hand when an asthma attack occurs.  More importantly, patients who use OTC inhalers should still seek advice from a health professional about the long-term treatment of their asthma.

Natural Asthma Relief Treatments

In addition to conventional treatments for asthma there are also natural treatments available to help you control your asthma.

Herbal and homeopathic asthma treatment can be extremely effective.  Depending on the severity of your asthma, they can reduce or eliminate the need for the synthetic drugs and inhalers and can also be safely used to complement conventional treatment of asthma.

Key to Effective Long-Term Treatment

The key to effective, long-term treatment of asthma is finding the medications and dosage plan most effective in dealing with or preventing acute episodes.  But effective treatment depends as well on the patient and the care-giver knowing what the various asthma medications do, when and in what amount each drug should be used.

Monitoring Symptoms and Using Asthma Medicine

According to the NAEPP Expert Panel Report, peak flow meters may be most helpful for people with moderate or severe asthma.  A meter reading will tell you your peak flow zones, which are based on the colors of a traffic light.  The green zone signals that your asthma is in good control, the yellow zone signals caution and is a sign to use quick-relief medicine to relieve symptoms, and the red zone signals a medical alert that means you should contact a doctor.  Written plans can be useful for telling you what kind of medicine to take and how much to take when you're in each zone.

Inhaled asthma medications are delivered through many different devices, including metered dose inhalers, dry powder inhalers, and nebulizers.  It's important to get instructions on how to use each medicine you take, and to have your doctor or nurse check your technique.

To improve effective use of asthma medication for kids or adults, plastic devices called spacer devices are often used with inhalers. Spacers create a space between the inhaler and the person's mouth to help more medicine get into the lungs.  A nebulizer, which delivers medicine in a fine mist, also is useful for young children.

A cure for asthma is judged by experts to be still a far-off possibility. But the majority of asthma sufferers can lead essentially normal, symptom-free lives by understanding and sticking to a well-planned strategy to keep clear of asthma triggers and to use the right asthma medications in the right way.