Pharmacological management of asthma.

Asthma management is changing, and there are many potential new drugs undergoing early and late phase trials. Nonetheless, it is unlikely that any dramatic alterations in therapy will occur within the next 3 years. The asthma treatment paradigm has altered over the past 10 or so years, with the emphasis on symptom relief from short acting beta agonists giving way to preventive treatment of underlying airway inflammation with inhaled corticosteroids. More recently, long acting beta agonists have been demonstrated to reduce the need for increasing doses of inhaled steroids in patients with poorly controlled asthma. This article reviews these trends.