Long-term control medicines

These also are known as maintenance medicines. They are usually taken every day on a long-term basis to control lasting asthma. These medicines may be used seasonally if your child's asthma symptoms become worse during certain times of the year.

Types of long-term control medicines include:

• Inhaled corticosteroids. These medicines are breathed in to treat the airway inflammation that leads to asthma symptoms. They are the most common long-term control medicines for asthma. They include fluticasone (Flovent HFA), budesonide (Pulmicort Flexhaler), beclomethasone (Qvar RediHaler), ciclesonide (Alvesco, Omnaris) and mometasone (Asmanex HFA).

• Leukotriene modifiers. These medicines taken by mouth block the effects of immune system chemicals that lead to asthma symptoms. They include montelukast (Singulair) and zafirlukast (Accolate). They can be used alone or along with inhaled corticosteroids.

  Rarely, montelukast and zafirlukast have been linked to mental reactions. These include agitation, aggression, hallucinations, depression and suicidal thinking. Get medical help right away if your child has any unusual reactions.

• Combination inhalers.

  These contain two types of medicines that are breathed in: an inhaled corticosteroid plus a medicine that relaxes muscles in the airways, called a long-acting beta agonist (LABA). Combination inhalers include the combinations fluticasone-salmeterol (Advair Diskus), budesonide-formoterol (Symbicort), fluticasone-vilanterol (Breo Ellipta) and mometasone-formoterol (Dulera). In some situations, long-acting beta agonists have been linked to serious asthma attacks.

LABA medicines should be given only to children when they are combined with a corticosteroid in a combination inhaler. This lowers the risk of a serious asthma attack.