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FDA Warning Frightens Asthmatics

By Henry J. Fishman, M.D.
ConsumerAffairs.com

December 2, 2005

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A warning issued by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has frightened many asthma patients, even though the warning was not based on any new information.

The FDA warned that three asthma medicines -- Advair Diskus, Serevent Diskus and Foradil Aerolizer -- can "increase the chance of severe asthma episodes and death when the episodes occur." It also asked the inhalers' manufacturers to add new warnings to the product labels.

What to do? Don’t stop your asthma medicine. Talk to your doctor and get the facts.

First of all there is nothing new here. We’ve known for years that bronchodilators -- airway openers -- can cause trouble when they are used by themselves. For example, in one and only one study, Serevent may have caused a slight increase in the death rate among young black males.

However, no reasonable doctor would prescribe this drug or any airway opener by itself for chronic use.

Asthmatics should first be treated with safe inhaled steroids for prevention, then a combination of inhaled steroids like Advair.

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