Excessive use of inhaled salbutamol: the potential benefits of dose-reduction. A case report

Inhaled, short-acting, beta-agonist medications are widely used in the trea tment of asthma. It is recommended in current asthma management guidelines that these medications should only be used "as required" for relief of asth ma symptoms. Despite this, there are still a number of asthmatic patients w ho are using excessive amounts. In occasional patients this may be detrimen tal to the control of asthma. We report the case of a 43-year-old, steroid- dependent asthmatic, with unstable asthma, using salbutamol up to 30 times a day. Following reduction of her beta-agonist use she had a dramatic impro vement in her asthma control and was able to successfully stop her oral ste roids.