How does SYMBICORT increase the risk of asthma related death?
Good for you for reading the warning and questioning your prescription. Basically, it means the following: When you use this long-acting drug, it works in your system for about a day. If you happen to have an asthma attack close to your next scheduled dosing, you need to use a rapid-acting drug like Albuterol to stop the asthma attack because Symbicort takes too long to start working. Albuterol works in about 15 minutes, whereas Symbicort can take up to 10 hours to start working. If you don’t have a quick-acting drug, the asthma attack may be fatal. That warning means that at least someone died while using the medication. The death might have been related to the use of the drug, or it might not have been. There’s no way to know for sure. It is most likely safe to use the drug. It would have been pulled from the market if it was too risky. However, the warning states, “SYMBICORT should only be used for patients with asthma not adequately controlled on other asthma-controller medications
