The effective treatment of COPD: Anticholinergics and what else?

Long-acting bronchodilator therapy should be considered when a COPD patient is symptomatic. For patients whose conditions are not sufficiently controlled by monotherapy, combining medications of different classes seems a convenient treatment for obtaining better results. The current opinion is that it is advantageous to develop inhalers containing several classes of long-acting bronchodilator drugs in an attempt to simplify treatment regimes as much as possible and to serve as a basis for improved ‘triple therapy’ combinations through co-formulation with novel anti-inflammatory compounds, such as inhaled PDE4 inhibitors, that could deliver three complementary therapeutic effects.

Section editors:Roy Goldie – Faculty of Health Sciences, Flinders University, Adelaide, AustraliaPeter Henry – School of Medicine & Phamacology, The University of Western Australia, Nedlands, Australia