Asthma medicines safety priorities

Recommendations within this guidance are for pharmacological treatment mainly aimed at people whose asthma is newly diagnosed or those who are uncontrolled on their current treatment. The recommendations include:

• Reviewing people with asthma who have been prescribed excessive reliever inhalers
• Monitoring asthma control at each review
• Using inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) as the first-choice regular preventer therapy for adults and children with asthma, adjusting the dose over time and aiming for the lowest dose required for effective asthma control
• Considering decreasing maintenance therapy when a person’s asthma has been controlled with their current maintenance therapy for at least three months
• Where long-acting beta agonists (LABAs) are prescribed for people with asthma, they should be prescribed with an ICS and not used alone
• Offering a written personalised action plan and education.