If you’ve had your first asthma attack, you need to make an appointment with your family doctor as soon as possible.You will receive emergency treatment in your nearest emergency room, but this is just the beginning. Asthma is a serious condition – as you are probably now very much aware – and it requires consistent and ongoing medical treatment with a doctor who is familiar with your situation and your health condition.

Your doctor should prescribe you a rescue inhaler as well as medication that you take every day to control your asthma. As you might suspect, the rescue inhaler is typically only used when you have an actual asthma attack, and the daily medications are used to prevent asthma attacks as best as they can.

For rescue inhalers, your doctor will typically prescribe a medication such as albuterol or atrovent. Again, it is important that you follow your doctor’s instructions before using these inhalers, and typically, you will need two or three inhalers so that one is always in easy reach. You also need to write down when you need to use the inhaler, and how many puffs were needed to each an asthmatic situation. This information will be very helpful to your doctor when he needs to make modifications to your medications.

For control medication, which is typically taken each day, your doctor may prescribe inhaled corticosteroids, beta-2 agonists, Leukotriene modifiers, or medications such as Theophylline or Cromolyn. If your asthma attacks are brought on by allergies, medication will typically be prescribed for the allergy as well, and your doctor may suggest immunotherapy as well.

Note that your doctor may change your prescriptions or dosages numerous times until the right medication and the right dosage is found for you. Over time, medication will need to be adjusted due to changes brought about by age.

Your doctor should try to determine what caused your asthma, and what triggered the attack. This information is very important. For example, if an allergy or an illness triggered the attack, you will need to take measures to avoid the trigger, and you may need treatment for the allergy or illness as well. Again, your doctor may change your medications based on how you are experiencing symptoms and how often, as well as how often you have asthma attacks and the severity of those attacks. Realize that your doctor won’t just change your medication without having a good reason for doing so.