Stepping Away from the Blue Inhaler in Asthma Management - A Paradigm Shift

For decades, short acting beta agonists (SABAs) have been prescribed for giving symptomatic relief to asthmatics. However, this symptomatic benefit perceived by the patient leads to the overuse and dependency of the patient to the SABA inhaler and underusage of the inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) containing controller inhalers resulting in destabilizing disease control and increased risk of exacerbations. In order to address this issue, the 2019 update of the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) strategy document no longer recommends the use of SABA inhalers as the preferred reliever for asthma due to concerns around poor outcomes and safety. Instead, it strongly supports the use of a combined ICS-fast acting beta agonist as a reliever also termed as an Anti-inflammatory Reliever Therapy (AIR). In this review we discuss the extent of SABA overusage and its impact on asthma outcomes, the resultant change in the recommendations in the GINA document and finally the evidence supporting the use of formoterol- budesonide as AIR therapy.