Table 4 Theme 2: positive changes since commencing biologic treatment
From: “Life-changing”: the experience of super-responders to biologics in severe asthma
Physical health improvements | |
Reduction in limitations from daily asthma symptoms | “It’s wonderful to be able to get up and run out to the garden. I can do so much more without the breathlessness” [PPT1] |
Other asthma treatment not needed | “I was getting through the inhalers like there was no tomorrow. Now I’ve got one in the cupboard and I’m having to look at them to make sure they’ve not gone out of date because I’ve not used it. It’s amazing.” [PPT3] |
Fewer/less severe colds/chest infections | “I haven’t had to go back to the GP for any chest infections since I, at all, since I’ve been on the injection.” [PPT16] |
Able to be more physically active | “I could never have done the coastal path, but I was able to do that within three weeks of the injection.” [PPT12] |
Decreased exacerbations and hospitalisations | “I would have probably been in hospital at least once by this time, certainly had the ambulance here a couple of times and I would have been on courses of Prednisolone by now. None of it, none of the above.” [PPT19] |
Improvement in other health conditions | “One of the most positive side-effects for me is that also suffer from eczema and since starting the injections it’s completely cleared up”. [PPT17] |
Mental health improvements | |
Feeling more confident | “It’s just given me this level of confidence that I don’t have to consider asthma in anything that I undertake.” [PPT4] |
Less worry, anxiety and fear | “So Mepolizumab has largely, really not just given my life back in terms of respiratory function but also the anxiety, it’s really helped with that.” [PPT22] |
Feeling happier | “And happier obviously because I’m not taking inhalers all the time.” [PPT8] |
Less embarrassment | “It was really embarrassing, that’s the psychological aspect of it … my colleagues all used to say ‘your cough, your cough is awful’ … that’s one aspect that doesn’t happen. It’s marvellous, wonderful.” [PPT3] |
Empowerment | “Asthma was my controller. Now I’m the controller.” [PPT4] |
Social improvements | |
Able to socialise more | “Before, being on steroids and being quite depressed, a lot of the time I would pull out of social things… whereas now I’m just saying yes and I can do everything and I can go out and I can have fun and I can see my friends more.” [PPT2] |
Family improvements | |
Less worry for family | “The rest of the family are more relaxed now.” [PPT10] |
Able to care for family | “With my chest feeling better I was then able to better care for him. It felt good to be able to do that instead of having to rely on him to look after me.” [PPT1] |
Improvements in working life | |
Able to be more productive in work | “Now I have this attitude of there’s no limits and I mean my boss loves it because he says ‘can you do this?’ and I’m ‘yeah, sure, why not’.” [PPT2] |
Able to stop working | “I just thought ‘this is my one shot to enjoy some retirement’ … by four months I realised that I didn’t know what the longevity of the effects of the injection was gonna be. I decided to retire to maximise it.” [PPT4] |