Regulation of asthma funds dropped significantly

Regulation of asthma funds dropped significantly

03/05/2011

In the run-up to today's World Asthma Day, information service provider Insight Health announced that its prescription for asthma (anti-asthma) has dropped significantly over the past year. Physicians around the world have issued around 0.6 million fewer prescriptions for asthma than they did in 2009.

A total of 15 million prescriptions for medicines for asthma were issued by doctors throughout Germany last year, which represents a reduction of more than half a million prescriptions compared to the previous year. According to the experts, a gratifying development, but part of the decline is due only to the more accurate diagnosis.

Falling prescriptions of asthma medication pleasing signal?
Medical research firm Insight Health said that the prescription of asthma funds declined significantly in 2009. Of the 15 million prescriptions last year, more than three quarters accounted for the three drug classes of short-acting beta-2 stimulants, the steroid hormones (corticosteroids) and the combination of long-term effective beta-2 stimulants and corticosteroids. According to the market researchers, the short-acting beta-2 stimulants are used to prevent respiratory distress or difficult breathing, steroid hormones are used to reduce airway inflammation and the combination of long-acting beta-2 stimulants and corticosteroids is used for particularly severe asthma Diseases prescribed. The fact that the prescriptions have declined significantly in all three main groups of prescribed antiasthmatics is regarded by both market researchers and physicians as a pleasing signal.

Increase in prescriptions in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
However, the increase in the prescriptions of drugs for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) obscures the gratifying development in anti-asthmatic drugs. That's how loud they are „Insight Health“ The COPD regulations increased to 8.0 million in 2010. According to the market research company, this is probably also due to the improved differential diagnosis between the clinical pictures of asthma and COPD. For example, today people are increasingly being assigned to COPD, which used to be treated as an asthmatic. In addition, some new drugs such as roflumilast, tiotropium and indacaterol have been introduced for the treatment of COPD, which has automatically increased the prescriptions, said a spokesman for Insight Health. Thus, the experts were hardly surprised by the significant increase in regulations in the field of COPD.

Changed attitude of the treating physicians?
However, the decline in the prescriptions of asthma remedies is at least partly due to the changed attitude of the treating physicians. Thus, more and more doctors are looking for possible alternatives before they begin with the medical treatment of asthma. A focus of the therapy is also a determination of the asthma causes. Because often can be already by slight changes in everyday life - such as changing eating habits, increased fluid intake or avoiding stress - cause significant relief of symptoms. (Fp)

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Picture: Gerd Altmann