Management of asthma in general practice

An audit of the management of asthma in two large general practices has been undertaken. The overall level of therapy prescribed was, in general, related to both the objective severity of the patients' asthma and the extent of symptoms. However, many individual patients received sub-optimal therapy. Prophylactic inhaled beta agonists were used infrequently. Inhaled steroids were prescribed to only one third of the patients and to less than half of severely affected patients. The results suggest that this group of adult asthmatics were relatively under treated in general practice, but a prospective study with proven compliance is necessary to confirm this.