Double dose of preventer

[Moose1]

Hi,

I've got a virus/cold thing going on which is upsetting asthma. Have doubled up preventer (symbicort 200/6) so now on 4 puffs twice a day. But how long should it take for me to notice a difference?

Thanks,

Christine

[Hidden]

dont know i think you should ring your asthma nurse or gp and see what they say.

Plumie

[Moose1]

I was gonna stick this under a new topic but I've just been to the doctor's, which was a complete and utter waste of time. And apparently, doubling up the preventer doesn't work!!

Anyone else been told that?

I won't be bothering with the doctor's again!

A not happy Christine

[Hidden]

How can that be? Surely if that was the case then we would all be on the same dose? Maybe what the doctor meant was that it wouldn't help whatever was causing your problem?? Let u s know

[Moose1]

He said that doubling up the preventer when unwell, i.e from a cold or other virus, it does no good, takes a few weeks. So if I take 4 puffs instead of 2, it won't help me until next week - apparently!

Christine

[Hidden]

your doctor is correct, it takes at least four weeks to get in to your system, if you cold is affecting your asthma a lot and the gp thought it was nesscary he would give you prednisolone as this works in 24 to 48 hours. He clearly doesnt think it is nesscary, so you just need to keep warm, lots of warm drinks and lots of fruit and veg and keep tissues handy. Hope your start to feel better soon, any more questions feel free to ask away.

[Hidden]

In fact, everyone here is correct.

For conventional preventer inhalers - i.e. steroid only - there is no proven benefit in doubling the dose when you have a cold. The benefits only really become obvious if you increase the dose five-fold (and if you are already on a high dose, this clearly becomes a bit ludicrous).

However, for Symbicort it's a bit different, as it has the licence under SMART for the dose to be increased as per symptoms up to a max of eight additional puffs per day. This *has* been shown to have benefits for symptom and asthma control.