Facts about the two major types of childhood asthma medications
What appears to be a persistent cold and cough that refuses to go away often
turns out to be childhood asthma.
Over the past two or three decades, childhood asthma cases have skyrocketed. Many health professionals consider it bad enough to call it an epidemic. Asthma is a chronic condition that will require long term medical attention and treatment if it is to be managed well. In addition, asthma will affect practically all other aspects of a child's life.
However, that is no reason to panic. The good news is that there is a huge amount of ongoing research into asthma. And there are new, improved treatments becoming available all the time, both for childhood asthma cases and for adults.
A few decades ago, most medical professionals thought that the only way to manage asthma was to ensure that it was triggered as infrequently as possible. And if it did rear its ugly head, they treated it with bronchodilators which provided short term relief and allowed the patient to breathe normally.
Today, there is a far greater understanding of the disease. Treatment now involves a multi-pronged approach. Of course, bronchodilators are still used to manage asthma attacks and to provide immediate relief.
Preventive Medication
Apart from rescue medication, the doctor will very likely prescribe what is called preventive or maintenance medication. The objective here is to reduce the inflammation in the airways and hence reduce the frequency and severity of attacks.
There are two basic kinds of preventive medication available. One kind is the inhaled corticosteroids (abbreviated ICS) which are anti-inflammatory drugs. They help keep the airways open by reducing inflammation in the bronchi.
Leukotriene receptor antagonists are the other kind of maintenance medications. The lungs contain a substance called leukotrienes, which cause the airways to swell and narrow, thus creating breathing difficulties. The leukotriene receptor antagonists inhibit the production of leukotrienes.
Corticosteroids are the preferred treatment according to the National Asthma Education and Prevention Program.
In practice, doctors have found that different children respond differently to these classes of medication. Some children seem to do best by using ICS every day while others don't respond to ICS but do well with leukotriene inhibitors.
One of the problems with this is that many parents accept whatever medication the doctor has prescribed as the best possible cure and if it doesn't work, they don't go back to him with that feedback. As a result, alternate drugs don't get prescribed and the problem does not get managed well.
Fortunately, the need for trial and error may soon be eliminated to an extent, thanks to research findings that allow doctors to predict which type of medication will suit a particular child best.
Researchers discovered that inhaled corticosteroids work best on children who had high levels of inflammation along with low lung function. Children who were younger and have had asthma for a fairly short period of time tend to do well with leukotriene receptor antagonists. Other cases of childhood asthma may require actual use of medications to find out what works best.
Childhood asthma can usually be controlled well with the right drugs and lifestyle changes.