Prescribing for asthma in the outpatient clinics in Riyadh: Does it follow the guidelines?

In order to reduce the significant morbidity and mortality associated with asthma, current guidelines recommend the use of anti-inflammatory therapy in a step-wise approach. To obtain information on how physicians are treating asthma, we evaluated prospectively 243 newly seen asthmatics in the outpatient clinics in four hospitals in Riyadh. The patients were assessed by five pulmonologists who confirmed the diagnosis, established the severity, recorded the medications patients were taking, and the specialty of the prescribing physician.