Do inhalers suck... or blow?

What is it about patients and inhalers? Yesterday I saw a patient in my COPD clinic – someone whom I have seen twice before and spent a lot of time deciding what sort of inhaler device she would like best.

So why does she unscrew the top off her easibreathe, use it like an MDI and then complain to me that the treatment doesn't seem to be working?

If that was the only problem it wouldn't be so bad but we have all met the "double puff" patient, or the suck instead of blow or, even better, the GTN spray being used for their asthma.

I know I showed her how to use it properly, was it something I said or, more importantly perhaps, something I didn't?

Two-time C+D Award-winner Valerie Sillito is a community pharmacist based in Aberdeen. An independent prescriber, she runs clinics in hypertension, and COPD and asthma. A keen skier and sailor, she describes pharmacy as another of her interests, rather than simply a job.