Using Inhalers Correctly

A few years ago, we had a neighbor kid with asthma that regularly played with our kids. One day, he had an asthma attack at our house and mom, a nurse, gave him his inhaler. He took a puff from the inhaler and continued to hyperventilate without a pause, which doesn’t give the medication time to work.

Fast acting inhalers use a liquid and propel the medicine under pressure

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At least he was using the correct type of inhaler, a fast-acting bronchodilater. Some patients have a hard time keeping the different kinds of inhalers straight and wrongly use long-term steroid inhalers for asthma attacks. This little guy probably should have used a spacer for his inhaler as well, which would have mixed the medication in the air better before he inhaled it.

A study presented at CHEST 2007 — a conference of the American College of Chest Physicians — shows how often asthma and COPD patients screw-up their inhalers, at least the daily long-term kind. According to the authors from the University of Heidelberg in Germany, one third of asthma and COPD patients incorrectly used their dry-powder inhalers. In most cases, the patients didn’t correctly inhale all the medication powder for one reason or another.

Using a spacer with an inhaler helps distribute the medicine properly

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The researchers tested four different types of dry powder inhalers: Aerolizer, Diskus, HandiHaler, and Turbuhaler. The most errors occurred with patients using the HandiHaler; more than half got it wrong with this device. With all the devices it helped if patients were taught how to use them correctly, reducing overall mistakes by half.

The big difference between fast-acting inhalers that contain liquid and these dry powder inhalers is the way the medication is propelled out of the device. With typical fast-acting inhalers, the medication is squirted out under pressure. On the other hand, dry powder medications have to be sucked out by the patient, which is really difficult when you’re having shortness of breath.

Anything that interfere’s with a patient’s ability to inhale can create more problems when trying to use the dry powder inhalers. Those over 60 years old had twice as much trouble and people with impaired breathing were three times more likely to make mistakes using dry powder inhalers.

If you’re using a dry powder inhaler for your asthma or COPD, check with your doctor if you don’t think the medication is working well. The problem may be the inhaler rather than the medication itself. Whether your medication is working for you or not, check with your doctor to make sure you’re using it correctly. Two minutes getting educated may help you breathe a lot easier.