[Inhalation therapy, patient's perspective]

Abstract

The cornerstone of drug application in obstructive pulmonary diseases is by inhalation as advocated by all treatment guidelines. Today, there exists an extensive choice of inhalers and new models. Numerous inhaler types are constantly being developed and introduced into the market making the "correct" selection a wearying task for the physician as well as for the patient. Improvement in the management of this aspect, which is often neglected in its importance in daily practice as well as in guidelines, is therefore reliant not only on the medications themselves but also on their effective delivery. Complicated inhaler mechanics and poor inhaler technique which do not meet the patient requirements and desires contribute to poor compliance eventually leading to poor disease control. In this review, the importance of inhaler acceptance and the degree of satisfaction with different inhaler types are discussed. This paper focuses on the behavioral and attitudinal evidence that the acceptance of the inhaler is linked to patient compliance, and its linkage on health and patient-reported outcomes.