Plain language guide to asthma | |
Asthma. Jon Ayres. London: Dorling Kindersley, 2000 (95pp). ISBN: 1 86466 270 0. |
This is a concise, plain language book on asthma which provides a complete coverage of the clinical aspects of the disease. The author, Jon Ayres, is a professor of medicine and has coauthored many original papers of clinical asthma studies in international respiratory journals. The book would be useful as a reference for patients newly diagnosed as suffering from asthma. It would also be helpful to other health professionals involved in asthma management, since it serves as a brief and accurate summary of the many aspects of the disease, for example the key role played by allergens in pathogenesis and allergen-avoidance techniques. The addresses and websites of Australia's Asthma Foundations, the Australian Lung Foundation, the National Asthma Campaign and Melbourne's Lung Health Promotion Centre at the back of the book are useful sources of additional information available to patients. The discussion of drug treatment for asthma was disappointing. Although it is important to keep the book brief and not to overemphasise the pharmacological aspect of asthma management, there might have been more detail and information on drug treatment. Inhaled corticosteroids are the most effective drugs used for treating asthma. I feel that some description of their importance in the overall management of asthma and a mention of the problems associated with their use would have been welcome. Also, the drugs are divided into three generic categories: "relievers", "preventers" and "emergency drugs". The long-acting beta-agonists are placed in the group "relievers", but, in Australia, have really assumed a class of their own, that of "controllers". It could be argued that this new class of drugs, which are in widespread use around the world, has been the biggest advance in the drug treatment of severe asthma in recent years. Clearly distinguishing long-acting beta-agonists in such a way would reflect current clinical practice and be in line with the classification used by the National Asthma Campaign. Also, their indications and actions have not been described, and no mention made of the potential dangers of using them without concomitant inhaled corticosteroid use. In summary, this is generally a very good book providing much useful information about asthma, especially about the pathogenesis, pathology, epidemiology, clinical manifestations and adjunctive therapies, but I feel that it has some deficiencies in the chapters on drug management. Gregory G King
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