Asthma relief: what helps and when to get care

A reliever inhaler is intended to open narrowed airways promptly during symptoms such as wheezing, cough or chest tightness. A controller medicine reduces airway inflammation over time. Feeling better after a reliever does not make regular controller treatment unnecessary when that treatment has been prescribed.

Frequent symptoms, waking at night, avoiding activity or repeatedly reaching for a reliever can indicate that asthma is not well controlled. These patterns merit a clinical review even when each episode settles.

Sit upright, stay as calm as possible and move away from smoke, perfume, dust or another obvious trigger. Use the prescribed reliever exactly as the personal action plan directs. If a metered-dose inhaler and spacer were supplied, attach them correctly and take each puff separately with the breathing method demonstrated by the clinician.

Check the dose counter or remaining supply before an emergency arises. After a flare, note what happened, which medicine was used and whether symptoms returned. A pharmacist or clinician can watch inhaler technique and correct errors such as firing several puffs into a spacer at once.

Call emergency services if breathing is severely difficult, speech is limited by breathlessness, the lips look blue or grey, the person is faint, confused or unusually drowsy, or the reliever is not helping as the action plan says it should. Continue the emergency-plan steps while help is being arranged, if it is safe to do so.

Bring every inhaler and spacer to the appointment. Ask the clinician to label which medicine relieves symptoms, which controls inflammation, how your plan changes during a flare, and what pattern of reliever use should prompt an earlier appointment.