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WALTER S. BURRAGE, M.D.; HERBERT C. MANSMANN, Jr., M.D.; JOHN W. IRWIN, M.D.

AMA Arch Intern Med. 1955;96(3):369-374.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

As long as the underlying mechanisms of asthma are not fully understood, differences of opinion in regard to diagnosis and therapy will continue to exist. At least two methods, however, have repeatedly failed and should be discarded. First, a festoon of pharmacological agents usually delays the etiological diagnosis and confounds therapeutics. Secondly, an unsympathetic approach to the patient can only lead to failure.

Too often a patient is seen with severe symptoms of asthma even though he is taking medication of such variety as to require a valise. Such drugs may include ephedrine, potassium iodide, epinephrine, aminophylline, barbiturates, meperidine (Demerol), vitamins, antibiotics, antihistamines, and even corticotropin and corticosteroids. With such a barrage one might anticipate obliteration of asthmatic symptoms, but such an injudicious combination fails.

Since asthma is a puzzling disease, certain unreasonable attitudes have developed. "Friends" and relatives are prone to regard the victim's symptoms as a shield against . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
Boston

From the Medical Service of the Massachusetts General Hospital and the Department of Medicine, Harvard University: Physician, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Lecturer on Medicine, Harvard University (Dr. Burrage); Milton Research Fellow in Medicine, Harvard University, and Clinical and Research Fellow in Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital (Dr. Mansmann); Clinical and Research Fellow in Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital (Dr. Irwin).

Footnotes
Submitted for publication June 22, 1955.

Supported by the Allergy Clinic Fund of the Massachusetts General Hospital and the Mary Dexter Fund.

Read in the Symposium on Respiratory Diseases before the Joint Meeting of the Section on Experimental Medicine and Therapeutics and the Section on Internal Medicine at the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Medical Association, Atlantic City, June 9, 1955.

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