A third of adults diagnosed with asthma may not actually have the condition, research suggests. Experts think many people are misdiagnosed with the condition, while others recover to the extent the asthma is no longer active. They say doctors are too often diagnosing their patients with asthma without doing the proper tests. “Doctors wouldn’t diagnose diabetes without checking blood sugar levels, or a broken bone without ordering an X-ray,” lead author Professor Shawn Aaron said. “But for some reason many doctors are not ordering the spirometry tests that can definitely diagnose asthma.” The Canadian researchers carried out breathing tests on 613 patients who had been diagnosed with asthma in the last five years. They found 33 percent of patients showed no sign of asthma. Yet eight in 10 of these had been taking medication, 35 percent of them every day. More than 90 percent of patients with no asthma were able to stop their medications and remained safely off treatment for a year of monitoring, the team found. The study, led by the University of Ottowa, echoes research which suggests asthma is hugely over-diagnosed in the UK as well. In the UK, around 5.4 million people are currently receiving treatment for asthma – one in every 12 adults and one in every 11 children. But NHS watchdog NICE warned in 2015 that around one third of ‘asthmatic’ adults showed no clinical signs and had probably been misdiagnosed. And last year leading experts warned asthma inhalers were being dished out like ‘fashion accessories’ in the NHS, particularly among children. They said doctors take the slightest wheeze to be a sign of asthma, and giving out inhalers where they are not needed. Professor Andrew Bush, of the Royal Brompton Hospital in London and Dr Louise Fleming of Imperial College London, said in a journal article last year, “The diagnosis of asthma has been trivialised and inhalers dispensed for no good reason, and have become almost a fashion accessory. The result is the fact that asthma is a killing disease, if not correctly managed, is overlooked.” The new study, published in the JAMA medical journal, found that doctors often did not order the tests needed to confirm an asthma diagnosis. Instead they based their diagnosis solely on the patient’s symptoms and their own observations. Professor Aaron, of the University of Ottowa, said, “It’s impossible to say how many of these patients were originally misdiagnosed with asthma, and how many have asthma that is no longer active. What we do know is that they were all able to stop taking medication that they didn’t need – medication that is expensive and can have side effects.” When the patients that were found not to have asthma were re-diagnosed, most had minor conditions such as allergies or heartburn, and 28 per cent had nothing wrong with them at all. Two per cent had serious conditions such as pulmonary hypertension and heart disease which had been misdiagnosed as asthma. “It wasn’t a surprise to most patients when we told them they didn’t have asthma,” said Professor Aaron. “Some knew all along that their puffer wasn’t working, while others were concerned that they might have something more serious. Thankfully, the majority of the conditions were mild and easily treated.” Dr Andy Whittamore of the Asthma UK charity said: ‘This small study suggests that some people may not be receiving the correct diagnosis for asthma or may be misdiagnosed. ‘However, it does not address the equally worrying problem of underdiagnosis and poor control of asthma in the wider population. ‘Nevertheless, the study highlights some important aspects of good asthma management and care, such as the need for people with asthma to receive objective measurements such as spirometry to confirm their diagnosis along with regular reviews with their GP or nurse.’ He added: ‘Asthma is a chronic condition with many complex causes which is why diagnosis may be difficult. ‘Asthma is also a highly variable condition that can change throughout someone’s life or even week by week, meaning treatment also needs to change over time.’