Asthma and Severities Discussion

Asthma and Severities Discussion

Asthma and Severities Discussion

Asthma is one of the chronic conditions which have negative impacts on individuals’ lives since it affects the lungs. It is an illness where an individual’s airways swell and get narrow hence producing extra mucus, which can result in difficulty in breathing. Therefore, asthma needs medical management for better patient care and outcomes as it can be life-threatening if not treated or managed (Cevhertas et al., 2020). The purpose of this discussion is to explore asthma and its severity, differentiate between allergic asthma and extrinsic asthma, and a treatment approach for every severity level of asthma.

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        Asthma and Its Severities

                As earlier highlighted, asthma is a chronic condition majorly characterized by affecting an individual’s airways. Currently, around eight percent of children and adults in the US have asthma. Its chronic nature means that asthma can progress in stages or phases, with each phase having a different way of management and treatment. Usually, asthma can be persistent or intermittent (Kaplan & Price). Occasional arise in symptoms happen with intermittent asthma. The severity of asthma can be classified into four stages. They include intermittent, mild persistent, moderate persistent, and severe persistent.

            Intermittent asthma is the least severe type of asthma, therefore sometimes called mild intermittent asthma. When a person has intermittent asthma, the symptoms can occur about two days in a week or sometimes less, with the possibility of waking the person two or fewer times every month. In addition, the symptoms may not interfere with an individual’s regular activities. An individual who has this first stage of asthma usually shows eighty percent or more in the forced expiratory volume. Intermittent asthma is managed by a short-acting beta-agonist inhaler which the individual may need to use two or fewer times every week (White et al., 2019).

            Mild persistent asthma is the next stage of severity of asthma, and an individual with mild persistent asthma usually shows symptoms at least twice every week, and the person may endure awakenings up to four times every month. As opposed to the first stage, this stage of asthma may have minor effects on an individual’s regular activities. When a person has mild persistent asthma, their result in the FEV lung capacity is usually at least eighty percent. A short-acting beta-agonist inhaler is also used in the management and taken more than two times every week (White et al., 2018). Low-dose inhaled corticosteroids are used for treatment

            The third stage is moderate persistent asthma, and one of the major characteristics is that the asthma symptoms will occur every day. Night awakenings also happen more than once every week, with the symptoms limiting a person’s daily activities. The results for the lung test for persons with moderate persistent asthma are usually sixty to eighty percent. A short-acting beta-agonist inhaler is also used as part of the management, used every day.  A medium dose of inhaled corticosteroids and a combination of inhaled corticosteroids and a long-acting beta-agonist is used for treatment. The final stage is severe persistent asthma, where the symptoms occur every day, and the patient wakes up every night (Holguin et al.,2020). The symptoms also substantially limit an individual’s daily activities. The short-acting beta-agonist inhaler is used several times a day to control the symptoms in this case. A high dose of inhaled corticosteroids and a long-acting beta-agonist combination are used for treatment.

Allergic and Intrinsic Asthma

                Even though asthma can be divided into phases or stages of severity, it can also be categorized as either allergic or intrinsic. Allergic asthma results from allergic reactions, which lead to enhanced levels of Immunoglobulin E in the blood levels (Holguin et al.,2020. On the other hand, intrinsic asthma comes as a result of non-allergic factors.

Conclusion

Asthma is a chronic condition that needs management. Poor management results in undesirable health outcomes. The stages of asthma all need different management and treatment approaches. The higher levels of asthma need better management practices

References

Cevhertas, L., Ogulur, I., Maurer, D. J., Burla, D., Ding, M., Jansen, K., … & Akdis, C. A. (2020). Advances and recent developments in asthma in 2020. Allergy, 75(12), 3124-3146. https://doi.org/10.1111/all.14607.

Holguin, F., Cardet, J. C., Chung, K. F., Diver, S., Ferreira, D. S., Fitzpatrick, A., … & Bush, A. (2020). Management of severe asthma: a European respiratory society/American thoracic society guideline. European respiratory journal, 55(1). Doi: 10.1183/13993003.00588-2019

Kaplan, A., & Price, D. (2020). Treatment adherence in adolescents with asthma. Journal of asthma and allergy, 13, 39. https://doi.org/10.2147%2FJAA.S233268.

White, J., Paton, J. Y., Niven, R., & Pinnock, H. (2018). Guidelines for the diagnosis and management of asthma: a look at the key differences between BTS/SIGN and NICE. Thorax, 73(3), 293-297. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2017-211189

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Discussion about asthma and its severities:
Please differentiate between allergic asthma and extrinsic asthma.
Post a treatment approach for every different level of the severity of asthma.