Welcome back to the Real Life Pharmacology podcast.

Today I'm going to cover short-acting beta agonists.

Short-acting beta agonists are incredibly powerful life-saving medication

that can really help open up the airways and patients who have a hard time breathing.

And most often the situations that I see these medications prescribed in,

asthma, of course, that's kind of a reactive airway disease,

where the airway kind of swells up and you create a blockage,

a reduced airflow capacity through the bronchials and lungs and out through the mouth, obviously, mouth and nose.

And the short-acting beta agonists work to stimulate beta-2 receptors in that airway, and this

leads to kind of relaxation and opening of that smooth muscle.

So again, perfect for the use of asthma in an acute situation where we need to have a rescue

inhaler.

COPD is another classic example where we see these medications used in that short-term setting

to open up that airway.

You will see it occasionally used for people that have coughing spells, maybe pneumonia,

just kind of on a short-term basis as well.

Now, the classic examples of short-acting beta agonists are albuterol, provental, pro-air, ventolin, probably pro-air and ventin are the brand names I see used most often.

There's also Levehobuterol, which is brand name Zopenex.

One of the most important education points for patients is recognizing the differences

between their inhalers.

Often patients with COPD, with asthma, they'll have... is recognizing the differences between their inhalers.

Often patients with COPD, with asthma,

...