Asthma deaths.

Abstract

Deaths from asthma seem to be increasing in spite of considerable improvements in drug treatment and management plans. There are many hypotheses to explain this, but little emphasis has been placed on the possibility that confidence in better drug treatments may modify patients' behavior so as to place them at greater risk of illness. It is well recognized that excessive confidence in bronchodilator inhalers and nebulizers can make patients stay away from hospitals too long during acute attacks. It is also very possible that prevention of symptoms by use of antiasthma drugs could allow patients to spend more time in environments containing antigens or other agents that provoke asthma, resulting in more serious and long-lasting bronchial inflammation and reactivity.