Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a respiratory disease that is very to asthma, but the physiopathology is different. Person suffering from COPD have difficulty in exhaling. Difficulty in exhaling air due to obstruction lead to shortness of breath or frequently feeling tired. A person suffering from COPD may also have asthma. Reports of WHO in 2015 indicated that in India, 2-22% men and 1.2-19% women are affected by COPD. Globally 5% of all deaths are due to COPD.
However, there are various methods or varieties of drug medications, which are:
- Bronchodilators
- phosphodiesterase-4 (PDE4) inhibitors
- corticosteroids etc.
However, in the recent years, two-drug combination treatment has been used as medication variety. Two-drug combination treatment for COPD comprises of short-acting anticholinergic and a short-acting β-agonist, or an inhaled corticosteroid and a long-acting β-agonist. The most common and economic drug for this variety of medication are:
- ipratropium and albuterol, and
- fluticasone and salmeterol.
In other words, the treatment may combine long-acting bronchodilators and an inhaled corticosteroid or combination of other drug variety. The most important advantage is that these drugs are consumed in lower doses. Furthermore, they also help in improving drug delivery, are cost-effective, have better peripheral lung deposition, activated inhalation, and also the improvement in night-time airflow. They are the far superior in the treatment of COPD as compared to the other common methods.
