The right treatments and medicines can help you live well with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). There are lots of different types of medicines for COPD, that work in different ways. Finding the best combination of medicines for you is an important step to help manage your COPD.
COPD medicines can help reduce symptoms, like feeling short of breath, and lower the chance of having a flare-up or needing hospital care. Your doctor will give you medicines that are best for your symptoms, history of flare-ups, and how well the medicine works for you. Understanding your COPD medicines can make it easier for you talk with your GP, specialist, nurse or pharmacist about your medicines, to make sure you get the most benefit.
Let’s explore the different types of medicines that may help you manage your COPD.
Reliever medicines
These medicines work quickly to open your airways, making it easier to get air into your lungs. You use them when you suddenly feel short of breath. They start working in a few minutes and last for a few hours hours.
They are also called short-acting bronchodilators (pronounced bronk-oh-dye-lay-tors). This means they work fast by relaxing the muscles around the airways. This helps open the airways, making it easier to breathe within a few minutes.
Examples of reliever medicines include Ventolin, Asmol, Airomir, Bricanyl, and Atrovent.
Top tips:
- Use your reliever inhaler with a spacer.
- If you are using your reliever more than usual, talk to your doctor. This might mean your symptoms are getting worse, and your COPD Action Plan needs to be reviewed.
- If you have a reliever inhaler, always carry it with you when you leave the house. This way, you have it with you if you suddenly have trouble breathing.
Maintenance medicines
These are medicines you need to take every day, even when you feel well. They work slowly to prevent breathing problems but last for 12 to 24 hours. Unlike reliever medicines that work fast, these medicines take longer to show results. It might take a few weeks of daily use before you start to notice a difference. Using them every day can help manage COPD symptoms, lower the chance of flare-ups and keep you out of hospital. Maintenance medicines include long-acting bronchodilators and inhaled corticosteroids.
– Long-acting bronchodilators
These medicines work in the same way as reliever medicines, by opening your airways to make it easier to breathe.
There are two types of long-acting bronchodilators:
- long-acting muscarinic antagonists (LAMA). Examples include Braltus, Bretaris, Incruse, Seebri and Spiriva.
- long-acting beta2-agonists (LABA). An example is Onbrez.
Both help relax the muscles around your airways in different ways.
Your doctor might give you one type of long-acting reliever or a combination of both. Sometimes they come in separate inhalers and sometimes in a combined inhaler. Examples of combined LAMA/LABA inhalers include Anoro, Brimica, Spiolto and Ultibro.
– Inhalers containing corticosteroids
Some people with COPD may use an inhaler with a small amount of corticosteroid (steroid) in it. Corticosteroids reduce the inflammation and swelling in your airways.
Your doctor will usually prescribe an inhaler with:
- one long-acting medicine plus a steroid. Examples include Symbicort, Seretide, Bufomix, Salflumix, DuoResp and Breo.
or
- two long-acting medicines plus a steroid (triple therapy). Examples include Breztri, Trelegy and Trimbow.
Your doctor might prescribe this type of medicine if you have moderate to severe COPD, or have had more than two flare-ups or been to hospital for a COPD flare-up in the past year.
If you have been prescribed inhaled corticosteroids, make sure to gargle, rinse and spit out water after you use the medicine. This helps lower the chance of throat irritation.
Have you had your inhaler technique checked?
Inhalers help you breathe your COPD medicine directly into your airways and lungs. When you use your inhaler the right way, the medicine has the best chance of reaching your lungs. Ask your doctor, pharmacist or nurse to check how you use each of your COPD inhalers at least once every year or if you change to a different type of inhaler.
Flare-up medications
During a flare-up, there are medications which provide short-term, immediate relief called flare-up medicines. When taken early enough, these medicines can also reduce the severity and duration of your flare-up. Usually, this category includes antibiotics and oral steroids, and your doctor will advise what option will suit your condition best.
Antibiotics will not help manage COPD on a day-to-day basis but are prescribed if you have a flare-up due to infection, which is usually most obvious in mucus changes. Oral steroids, on the other hand, can be prescribed for a short period of time to help treat symptoms like a wheeze or breathlessness.
Top Tips:
- If you have been prescribed antibiotics, be sure to take the full course for as long as instructed – even if/when you start to feel better
- It is always important to follow the prescribed dose by your doctor and avoid deciding when and how much medicine to take on your own.
With up to 90% of people with COPD not knowing how to use their inhaler device correctly, you are not alone if you feel lost and confused by the right medicine for your condition and how to best take it. When seeing your doctor, nurse or pharmacist, ensure you take the time to learn how to use your prescribed medicines or devices to avoid confusion. Correct use of your medicines will ensure you get the most benefit from them and ultimately, feel empowered to enjoy your life regardless of your COPD diagnosis. Check out our inhaler device technique resources and videos, here.
Download a COPD Action Plan
The COPD Action Plan is a template completed by a GP or specialist in conjunction with you to outline the best course of treatment in a flare up or when symptoms are worsening. The COPD Action plan should be reviewed with your doctor each year and after a flare-up.
