Overusing inhalers can lead to an increased risk of asthma related death, experts warned on Tuesday.
The Asthma Society of Ireland said that reliever inhalers, which most people will recognise as the blue inhalers, if over-used, are strongly linked with severe asthma exacerbations and asthma related deaths.
An asthma exacerbation is an episode of progressive worsening of symptoms of asthma, including shortness of breath, wheezing, cough, and chest tightness and it can progress to a severe asthma attack.
Sarah O’Connor, CEO of the Asthma Society of Ireland, said: “International research shows that reliever inhaler overuse can be a major factor in asthma exacerbations and asthma related deaths, as in the UK's National Review of Asthma Deaths report and GINA’s Global Strategy for Asthma Management and Prevention.
“This makes the findings of this hmR Ireland research about Irish patients relying on their reliever inhaler stark and very worrying to us.
“One person dies every six days from asthma in Ireland.
“If you are using your reliever inhaler several times each week, you are over-reliant on it and your asthma is not controlled, according to the Global Initiative for Asthma.
“The exception to this is people with asthma who participate in sport/exercise, it is still recommended you use your reliever inhaler prior to warming up before exercising.”
The Asthma Society is calling on all people who are over-reliant on their reliever inhaler to act now to get their asthma in control.
An Asthma Action Plan can be downloaded from asthma.ie and the Asthma Society’s free Asthma and COPD Adviceline can be contacted on 1800 44 54 64 to help you understand asthma, its triggers and how to manage it, and to better understand your asthma control.
The Medical Director of the Asthma Society of Ireland, Marcus Butler, added: “A reliever inhaler works within minutes to relieve asthma symptoms when they happen - it gives a short-lived improvement in symptoms, effectively just buying time, but can eventually fail to keep a patient safe from asthma if more appropriate and effective controller inhalers are not used on a daily basis.
“A controller inhaler works over a much longer duration than reliever inhalers to eventually ease the underlying airway inflammation which ultimately causes asthma symptoms. It prevents symptoms from arising several weeks and months down the road, as long as it is habitually taken.”
