Advantages of inhaler medications
ROUTES– This medicine goes through the direct routes ,to a site where its action is required unlike oral medications ,which enters the mouth then goes to stomach,then abosrbed in stomach and enters the blood and the blood takes it to the site where it has to work.So ,any hidrance in the path can lower the amount of drug,whereas in case of inhalational route ,there is little chance of hindrance in delivery of drug.
DOSE– Inhalational medications come in microgram which is invisible to the naked eyes,unlike oral medications, which comes in miligram and in the form of tablets or syrups which anyone can see and the quantitiy is 1000 times more than the inhalational medicines for the same action.
Onset of Action-inhalational medicines starts working within minutes unlike oral medicines which may take an hour to start action
Adverse/Side effects- Since,the quantity of inhalational medicines are very very less and it goes directly to the target site,its adverse effects are almost nil even on long time use
MYTHS- There is a false belief that inhalational medicines cause addiction and patient will always require it and can not remain without it. It is baseless belief as the medicines in inhalational routes are the same as in oral medicines and it is not going to make a patient addicted to it. The need and duration of therapy depends on the severity of the disease
THE DEVICE
1.If spacer with valve is used with or without mask,the drug delivery into the target site is approximately 20% and depostion over the throat is about 10-20%
2. If only MDI is used without spacer the drug delivery is only approximately 10% to the target site and almost 50% gets deposited over the throat
3. In cases of use with nebulizer the drug delivery to the target organ is between 1-5% and 50-60% get deposited over the throat
4. In cases of rotahaler, only 1-5% drugs goes to the target site and almost 60% get deposited over the throat
CONCLUSION– 1.Inhalational medications are better than oral medications for long term use
2. Only MDI should not be used directly.It should always be combined with appropriate spacer/ holding chamber