DON’T LET ASTHMA DISRUPT YOUR LIFE – DISCOVER YOUR
TREATMENT OPTIONS
Asthma medications can help you with your asthma by reducing airway inflammation and/or relaxing the muscles around your airways to relieve airway narrowing.1 Your doctor will prescribe the medication that suits you best based on your asthma symptoms, personal preference, risk of side effects and other considerations such as cost.2
It's important to continuously review and seek advice from your doctor for adjustment of your asthma treatment if required to ensure asthma control – take the Asthma-Control Test and check with your doctor if you need to update your treatment plan
There are three types of asthma medications that your doctor may prescribe:2
Reliever medications
For quick relief of your asthma symptoms when you need it
Controller/preventer
medications
For controlling and preventing your asthma symptoms, it is taken regularly
Add-on medications
for severe asthma
For when you have persistent asthma symptoms despite using optimised, high amounts of controller medications
Based on your asthma severity, your doctor may prescribe only a reliever, or a reliever and a controller medication.2 When you use your controller medication regularly as prescribed by your doctor, you won’t need to use your reliever medication as often as the controller helps prevent your asthma symptoms.2,3 Some asthma medications can act as both your reliever and controller.2
Asthma medications also come in a variety of forms such as:2
Inhalers
Oral medications
Biological Injections
Inhalers
INHALERS
Asthma inhalers are portable devices that disperse your asthma medication like an aerosol, which you breathe in, delivering the medication to your lungs.4 Learn more about the types of inhalers.
Common inhaler medications:
Quickly relaxes the muscles in the lungs and opens the airways to relieve your asthma symptoms2,6
Always paired with an ICS either as two separate inhalers or a combination medication2
Relaxes the muscles in the lungs and opens the airways to relieve and/or control your asthma symptoms2,6
Always paired with an ICS as a combination medication2,5
Relaxes the muscles in the lungs and opens the airways as an add-on medication for severe asthma2,6
Combines more than one medication into a single inhaler (e.g., ICS-LABA) to relieve and/or control your asthma symptoms2,6
Oral medications
ORAL MEDICATIONS
Reduces inflammation of your airways by blocking chemicals called leukotrienes6
Usually as an alternative to ICS or an add-on medication for severe asthma2,5
Reduces inflammation of your airways to control and prevent asthma symptoms2,6
A last resort, short-term, add-on medication for severe asthma2,5
Biological Injections
BIOLOGIC INJECTIONS
-
Anti-IgE
(anti-immunoglobulin E)
-
Anti-IL5/5R
(anti-interleukin-5/5R)
-
Anti-IL4R
(anti-interleukin-4R)
-
Anti-TSLP
(anti-thymic stromal lymphopoietin)
- Papi A, et al. Allergy Asthma Clin Immunol. 2020;16:75.
- GINA. Global strategy for asthma management and prevention, 2022. Available at: https://ginasthma.org/gina-reports/. Accessed November 2022.
- Broder MS, et al. Am J Manag Care. 2010;16(3):170–178.
- Ibrahim M, et al. Med Devices (Auckl). 2015;8:131–139.
- Quirt J, et al. Allergy Asthma Clin Immunol. 2018;14(Suppl 2):50.
- Sharma S, et al. Asthma medications StatPearls [Internet], 2022. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK531455/. Accessed November 2022.
- McGregor MC, et al. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2019;199(4):433–445.
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NP-SG-ASU-WCNT-230002. April 2023.
