Becodiscs (Becotide) discontinued advice needed.

Hello Everyone, I am new to this website and best wishes to all. I have long term asthma and have been unsing Becodiscs in 200mg doses twice daily for at least 15 years. I collected my prescription the other day and the pharmacist told me that becotide (becodiscs) are to be discontinued. Me being the ever panicker am now immediately concerned about alternative medicines. Becodiscs suited me much more than the non cfc equivelants and im allive, no asthma attacks or hostpital stays for many years, This medication suits me. So before i go and see the doctor could anybody shead light on what is the closest alternative to becotide (becodiscs) 200mg so i can go to the docs fully knowledged. Thank you all and once again best wishes.

[Asthma-girl]

Unfortunately I am unable to advice you on your query but I would like to say hello and welcome to the forum.

[KateMoss]

Hello Les,

Your GP and or asthma nurse will be best to advise on what will suit you.

There are probably a few options.

Beclomethasone is still available I think in both MDI / Aerosol and also a dry powder inhaler.

Otherwise there are other steroid inhalers that you could try such as Flixotide (Fluticasone) which is a newer one from Beclomethasone - more stays in the lungs I think and works in a better way.

this is available in both Aerosol and dry powder inhalers.

Hope this helps

Kate

[Hidden]

Hi all,

Like Les above, I went to my pharmacist in August to find that my 20 year Becodisk preparation was unavailable. It so usefully measured the doses. Before then I was in an out of hospital and since then I have remained well most of the time with no hospital stays or nebuliser usage. Upping the dose when symptoms worsened solved most problems and then decreasing again when symptoms got better. A lot of the time I forgot I ever had asthma. I require measured doses and for whatever reason, I am not able to control my dosage without the dosage counter.

I have now been put on a new device whichh also measures the dosage, but it is a different medication. It is budenoside - forgive any spelling errors - I don't have this in front of me now as I write. It is a container of 200 measured doses. It saves having to carry a big box of disks around.

I would be interested if Les found a solution.

I have been doing OK with budenoside but I think I am attributing any re-occurence of asthma to my change of meds. I knew I would do that as I feel so nervous about the meds changing.

Thanks for listening and for any welcome feedback.

Andrea.

[Laineylee]

Hi all I am new here and looking for some advice. I was diagnosed with asthmas over 30 yrs ago and prescribed becodisks which worked great.

A number of times my GPs tried different ones but they never seemed to work as well, so always ended going back to becodisks. So when I found out they were being withdrawn I was gutted. I kept getting my script while I was able to find a chemist that had them so managed to get quite a few boxes as I take/took a 400 in the mornings and 200 at night as well as upping the dose if my astma got worse at any time eg. if I had a cold or the weather was damp and cold for a long time. By doing so my asthma has been well controlled.

I have been lucky they have lasted until now and have just a few discs left.

Last year I was prescribed Flixotide instead and got one in readiness but notified my GP I would not start it while I still had Becodisks left.

I have been taking it for 4 days so far and definitely not so good as coughing more and peak flow is down from 470 average to 440 and sometimes 420.

I will be seeing my GP when I can get an appointment, to discuss alternatives. and ask how many doses a day am I allowed to take?

The are 100 mg but supposed to only need one dose in morning and one at night, but by 3pm I am coughing and coughing.

Anyway for my question, What have other asthmas sufferers who used becodisks found works for them?

Also I found becodisks for sale on Chemist Direct??? Like almost £60 for a box of 8 400mg disks. Now how can they be available to sell yet not available on prescription? I wonder how many other ex becodisks users are having to cope with worse asthma because of the change to another medication.

[Hidden]

Did your GP say why they'd changed you to Flixotide instead of Becotide? It seems odd to change the actual medication when you could just change the delivery method?

Sometimes it's about the aerosol - either it just doesn't suit you and the drug doesn't reach your lungs or it actually aggravates things for you - my partner is allergic to something in aerosol based steroids. Are you using a spacer with the Flixotide? (I'm assuming that the flixotide is an MDI and not a powder-based one).

It will take a while for the Flixotide to build up in your system - but it sounds to me like you're also on a fairly low dose, though it is a stronger steroid than Becotide. Be warned though that the systemic effects of Flixotide are much stronger than those of Becotide as a drug, so very high doses can result in similar issues to very low doses of pred.

There are other options like Symbicort as well, is that one of the ones you've tried?

What I'm a bit confused by though is that there is no reason why either becodisks or flixotide would work as a long-acting reliever - they're steroids, so the effect builds up over weeks. I'd suggest the 3pm coughing is about exposure to triggers - maybe pollen at the moment? So while you might need to up the dose to reduce your inflammation, you would never take flixotide more than twice a day. (Just like you wouldn't use becotide in the middle of the day).

So - give the asthma UK nurses a call I think! They must know lots of people who have had to move off of Becodisks and might be able to suggest what worked for some of them.

hth,

Cx

[Laineylee]

Hi Curiouser thanks for your response. I am unable to take the aerosol as it sets me off coughing as the spray hits my throat (very sensitive back of throat)

The Flixotide is an accuhaler so powder based.

Yes I was told it is double the strength of Becodisks, so as I was taking a total of 600 micrograms of becodisks I am only taking 200 of Flixotide which at double strength equates to 400micrograms.

Re. taking becodisks in the middle of the day it was OKed some years back by my GP at the time and to be honest it always seemed to work. I am always the odd one out as the painkillers for my arthritis are one a day but wear off after about 6 hrs, so were changed to another that I can take twice a day, but they only give relief for around 4 hrs each tab so have to use paracetemol then.

I will research Symbicort, can't remember if that was tried, as been such a long time ago since I tried a new one. I always say if something works stick with it LOL.

I will contact my asthma nurse and ask her advice. Thanks again

[Hidden]

re taking steroid inhalers in the middle of the day ""as needed"" that seems really stragne? I was wondering if you knew anything about why you were told that you can do this? (not saying your wrong - just really dont understand!) Its not quite the same as painkillers as painkillers do have an almost immediate effect, and may 'run out' at different paces, as far as i understand the steroids take weeks to work, and so i see no reason that it would work other that having a psychosomatic effect, i'd be interested to know if you were given any information about it?? I certainly would double check what your GP wants you to do. I would normally say that steroid inhalers are never used PRN (if they are just steroid, i know symbicort SMART is different), thats what the salbutamol is for, however it seems you've been given different advice in the past, so i suspect the only person who can advice on this issue would be your GP!

Personally I have achieved slightly better control on Fostair (which contains Beclometasone) than I did on Seretide (which contans fluticasone) however I believe the spray is finer, and the long acting reliever is differnent, so there may well be another reason for this change! I think everyone is slightly differnt in what they find benefits them. It might take a while to experiment, but i see no reason why you wont find a steroid inhaler that works for you!

With regards to aerosols, have you tried using a spacer, then the spray doesnt actually hit your throat! How do you manage with your blue inhaler, do you have an accuhaler form of salbutamol? I would also say, it depends which aerosols youve tried in the past, I find that salamol and fostair make me cough especially if i use them straight into my mouth (not via a spacer) but that is because of the propellant as far as i can tell, rather than the delivery method, im fine with actual Ventolin, as opposed to Salamol!

I would say that generally GPs prefer to try steroid inhalers for a fair few weeks before switching as they take such a long time to build up, but if its really bothering you you might be able to try a new one earlier, there are plenty out there, and even if you cant find a steroid inhaler which works as well as the old one it might be an option to use a combination inhaler (so steroid and long acting reliever) to get the same level of control!!

Hope that is of some use, and is clear!

Soph!

[Laineylee]

Thank Soph

I have Ventolin Accuhaler and same for Flixotide.

I have been on Becodisks for 30+ years and I know at one time I was told by one of the GPs at my practice that I could take upto 2000 mg a day (have to say I never did but when my chest was bad 1200 -1400 was often the case.

It was only about 5-6 yrs ago when I did some research on the internet that I found I shouldn't be taking more than 1000 mg a day, so bit by bit cut it down to my current (until last Friday) 400mg in morning and 200mg at night.

As for taking in the afternoon going back through the years I had mentioned that I did numerous times and was never told I shouldn't, maybe 15 yrs ago they wouldn't have said anything?? I don't know.

All I know is Ventolin would never help with the afternoon cough, other than make it easier to cough. Yet after taking a 200mg dose of my preventer withing 10 - 15 mins it was stopped.

This was not an odd time here and there but a few hundred times over the last 20+ years.

I also found I could only take Becodisks manufactured in this country by Allen & Hanbury, as the ones by G S K were no use at all.

I found that out after taking them for a week and coughing for wales even at night. I couldn't understand why until going to use a new disc and realising it had a label stuck on it.

I changed back to the Allen & Hanbury ones that I had and within a day I was fine.

Through the years the local chemist often put the GSK ones in my meds and I would have a terrible job trying to get them changed as they insisted they were identical and no different.

I had tried them many times and even got my husband to change them into my diskhaler so I didn't know I was taking the wrong ones, yet every time without fail I would end up coughing about 15 mins after taking.

My GP thought it strange but admitted it was possible one of the ?ingrediants procured outside the EU might be manufactured just slightly different and enough to cause me problems.

I have very sensitive skin, and sensitive to certain toothpastes, so it was just possible the tiniest bit of difference was causing the problem.

I have had a word with my chemist today (unable to see Asthma nurse) and found I mustn't exceed 1000mg of Flixotide a day. That would never happen but I may have to take 200mg in morning and 100mg at night as I have been coughing since 2pm and the pollen count is low and has been raining.