Asthma Drugs

The most commonly used asthma drugs are short-acting inhaler which includes albuterol (Proventil, Ventolin), terbutaline (Brethine) and metaproterenol (Alupent). The high doses of several of these drugs are teratogenic in animals, but there is no proof that the animal threat is prognostic of human risk, based on the limited available human data. There are no data that inhaled asthma drugs such as ephedrine, isoproterenol and epinephrine are teratogenic.

The fear with epinephrine is that its effects can reduce placental perfusion with regular use. Ephedrine does not seem to have that effect as it is mostly [beta]-active. For many years, scientists have been using the drug methacholine to analyze asthma because methacholine narrows airways and causes wheezing in asthmatics, but has no wheezing effect in healthy peoples. In 1995, researchers discovered that if people with healthy lung function took only shallow breaths before inhaling the drug, their lungs behaved like asthmatics and found it difficult to breathe. The researchers found after further studies that a deep breath helps to open the airways after they close.