New BTS/NICE/SIGN Guideline on Asthma: diagnosis, monitoring and chronic asthma management 2024Today (27th November) the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), British Thoracic Society (BTS) and Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) publish their long-awaited single guideline on asthma diagnosis, monitoring and management.
We are pleased to mark World COPD Day with an introductory webinar on the new COPD risk slider*. We are also highlighting our COPD resources including animations, position statement and podcasts.
Maintenance and reliever therapy (MART) is a combined treatment system for asthma where a single, combined inhaler is used for both maintenance and reliever purposes, instead of having separate preventer (brown) and reliever (blue) inhalers.This system has many benefits such as reducing inflammation in the lungs, as well as providing quick relief from severe asthma symptoms, reducing asthma attacks and hospital admissions due to asthma, reducing prescription costs and it's better for the environment!
Following Darush Attar-Zadeh’s tobacco dependency article in PCRS’s Spring/Summer edition of Primary Care Respiratory Update, his 16-year-old daughter, Sophia Attar-Zadeh took it upon herself to write a blog on vaping providing a ‘first-hand account’ of how an increased number of children and young people have been drawn to it since the covid 19 pandemic. This blog will explore my personal experience and view on the rapid growth of vapes around the city of London as a 16-year-old girl.
Vaping is now a familiar sight in everyday life. With increased awareness of the dangers of smoking, vaping can, with appropriate support, be an effective tool to help people to quit.However, as vapes have become increasingly accessible, a growing number of children and young people are now turning to vaping and experiencing unnecessary nicotine addiction which is not linked to tobacco dependency.School teachers are reporting on increased in-school absenteeism where students are vaping instead of attending class.
We are pleased to launch a set of educational tools on supporting people with asthma in the 21st century to coincide with World Asthma Day (7th May). The suite of resources includes animations, podcasts and an online learning module - we will also host a webinar on the 15th May focused on the GINA approach to managing asthma.
In light of recent media attention, it is important to consider the risks and benefits associated with prescribing and taking montelukast for asthma treatment. While montelukast remains a valuable asthma treatment, for some, it is key to be aware of potential neuropsychiatric reactions. These have been reported in patients of all ages and include sleep disturbances, behaviour changes, depression, agitation, and, albeit rarely, hallucinations and suicidal behavior.
Doctors have reported a rise in the number of patients they are seeing with ill health due to the wider determinants of health, such as living in mouldy or damp homes, employment, poor air quality or education, a census has revealed – sparking urgent calls for government to address the “avoidable social causes” of ill health.
In response to the BBC’s Morning Live segment broadcast 12th February on asthma, PCRS has formulated a joint response with the British Thoracic Society raising our concerns of the inaccurate reporting on asthma treatment.Our complaint in full: