Evaluation And Concomitant Treatment Of Asthma

At Camp Wapiti, I was fortunate enough to be a co-counselor in the cabin that had the highest amount of prophylactic asthma medications. I had the opportunity to see most of my campers involved with taking several prevention medications. Most common was the Advair Diskus, typically dosed at 1 puff BID. The long acting B2 agonist and corticosteroid seemed to control the children quite well throughout the week’s activities. One child used Flovent 110 at 2 puffs QD (which I found odd considering Flovent is typically dosed at BID due to the half-life being 7.8 hours). Many children were also on Singular 4 or 5mg QHS – the most common leukotriene receptor antagonist on the market. These prevention medications were used exclusively by the children in need of a controlled medication due to their specific triggers, i.e. exercise etc. Several of the children were on medications typically for allergy prevention and were now being used for off-label indications to prevent an allergy induced asthma attack. These include Flonase (inhaled nasal corticosteroid) at 2 puffs in each nare BID, and a variety of oral anti-histamines – cetirizine/loratadine for AM doses and diphenhydramine for PM doses. One child had PRN use of a prednisone titrating dose, but was controlled enough throughout the week that he never needed to use it.

To better understand the impact of asthma, a brief overview of the causes (aetiology) and disease progression (pathophysiology) must be shown. As common as asthma is, not much is known about its aetiology, according to findings presented by Subbaroa, Mandhane and Sears (2009, pg. 181-187) in a review from the Canadian

Asthma is a respiratory disease that many people deal with every single day. “According to World Health Organization, approximately 180,000 people die from asthma each year.” (Jardins and Burton 187) Most people never think of asthma as a life threatening disease, but it can be crucial. As the number of people with asthma increases, the more likely you are to come in contact with someone who has been diagnosed with this disease. Asthma is a severe breathing problem that has many complications that is dealt with daily like shortness of breath, chronic cough, tightness of the chest and shortness of breath, my main focus is childhood asthma, allergic asthma, and medication to treat asthma.

There are treatment options available to help avoid asthma attacks. The use of corticosteroids is an option to help open up the airways. This can be found in metered dose inhalers and breathing treatments with the use of a nebulizer. For some people, seasonal allergy medication is used in concurrence with their inhalers to help manage any potential flare ups. However, these medications are fairly costly. According to the CDC, 1 in 4 black adults cannot afford their necessary asthma medications. Unfortunately, this can lead to even higher costly medical emergency visits, or even death.

Avoiding and controlling asthma triggers is important in every phase of the intervention process in order to manage the disease. However, many times because of lack of awareness and education, asthma

Asthma is a chronic condition affecting the respiratory system and has a considerable impact on both individuals and a population. Everybody is susceptible to asthma, some more than others, depending of a variety of factors including, age, sex, geographical location and income. Asthma is particularly prevalent in younger children and the elderly and while it can be fatal, most people have mild cases of asthma that are relatively easy to treat. The condition mainly impacts an individual’s physical ability to contribute to a community.

About 10% of American children have asthma (Thakur et al., 2013). It is vital to understand what determinants cause childhood asthma to understand even with a low percentage, why it is still present. According to Williams et al., asthma is a health outcome which is a major impact on American youth (Williams et al., 2009). This health outcome not only impacts them throughout the years of being a child, but it has the potential of creating more serious health problems in the future. And without knowing what the causes are, it increases the rate asthma among children and prevents treatments from being implemented. It needs to be addressed by using results from prior studies in order to show how much of a problem childhood asthma is but also in finding and understanding the other underlying

Asthma control varies over time due to severity and changes in the environment, for example, home, school and or work environments. There are several medications and combinations used to control asthma attacks. The first line of medication are inhaled corticosteroids used to prevent and reduce airway swelling and inhaled long-acting beta agonist used to keep the airways open and relaxed (AAFA, 2015). Examples of long-acting corticosteroids are fluticasone, budesonide, mometasone, beclomethasone, ciclesonide, flunisolide. Examples of LABA medications are salmeterol and formoterol; it is important to remind patients that these medications are not to be used in emergency situations. At times, both medications are used together in a single medication to treat asthma and prevent attacks. Some caution that patients should be aware that when using combination medication, the risk for severe asthma attacks increase (Mayo Clinic, 2015). Examples of combination medications are Advair (fluticasone and salmeterol), Symbicort (budesonide and formoterol), Dulera (mometasone and formoterol) and Breo (fluticasone and

Asthma may show symptoms of other diseases in an adult such as heart failure, COPD, rheumatic arthritis or stomach problems (Levy, et al., 2014). Therefore, age will have the greatest impact on diagnosis. A nurse practitioner must be aware of how adult onset asthma may mimic symptoms of other expected age related ailments. As a larger portion of adult onset asthma is initiated by allergies, acute pathophysiology may more closely resemble that of allergies (Levy, et al., 2014). Treatment for adult onset would be focused on maintaining as it is predominantly chronic in nature. Additionally, a thorough review of medication to ensure there are no incompatibilities (Levy, et al.,

With regard to her asthma, she should continue her current inhaled corticosteroids as well as her bronchodilators. I have elected not to treat her with systemic steroids given the lack of wheezing by symptoms and/or by exam

Children with asthma should be treated with both therapy using short-acting and long acting Beta2-agonists, inhaled corticosteroids to prevent inflammation and improves airway flow. Hill, Graham, and Divgi (2010), found Hispanic children are less likely to be prescribed inhaled corticosteroids.

More than half of adults with acute asthma skip routine examination of asthma in recent years and only 40% of adults and children with asthma receive an action plan against asthma. It is encouraging that the most serious hospitalizations and deaths from asthma decreases, nevertheless, there are about 400 deaths, 35,000 hospital discharges and 180,000 visits to the emergency room each year due to asthma. In addition, the hospital costs for asthma are enormous- More than $ 1 billion in 2010, hence corresponding preventive measures could save a lot. 12% of people who have been hospitalized for asthma in 2010 had at least a return visit this year. Repetition to avoid hospitalization could possibly have saved $ 156 Million in medical costs. Total measures of asthma management, varies highly by race / ethnicity, income, age, sex and other characteristics. Blacks have particularly disproportionate measures of emergency visits for asthma, hospital admissions and mortality. Although people of all incomes have an almost similar prevalence of asthma, people with low incomes are more poorly vulnerable. This is from California emergency room visits and hospital

Asthma is the leading cause of hospital admissions during childhood. Kumar and Robbins give an accurate definition of asthma as “a chronic inflammatory disorder of the airways that causes recurrent episodes of wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness, and cough, particularly at night and/or early in the morning” (489). Asthma is a terrifying disease, especially in children, because of the sudden attacks that could claim lives if not treated immediately and effectively. Despite recent advancements in available drugs and overall therapy, the incidence of childhood asthma is rising (Dolovich 373). In order to effectively treat and eventually prevent the onset of asthma, more effective and economical therapies are necessary; although

As you all know that there is no cure for asthma till now and in some cases there is no identified symptom too, but under all circumstances, a proper medication is necessary to treat, control and prevent the symptoms of asthma from reoccurring. The type of medication for asthma differs among individuals which depends on their internal system, age and the factors that trigger the attack. That is why all the medications do not work on every individual. You must be surprised to know that more than one quarter of patients who are suffering from this disease are children. Therefore, it becomes quite necessary to prescribe a proper medication for the asthma patient to manage this disease.

Asthma is a chronic airway disease that can be difficult to manage, resulting in poor outcomes and high costs (Kuhn et al., 2015). It is characterized by episodes of expiratory airflow obstruction, which occurs in response to multiple stimuli or triggers. Asthma is a lifelong disease, and symptoms include wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness, and coughing. Attacks can be mild, moderate, severe, or even life threatening and limit a person’s way of life (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 2011). There is no known cure for asthma, but symptoms can be controlled by avoiding the triggers and taking prescribed medicines that prevent or minimize symptoms.