Theophylline is a xanthine derivative.
Mechanism of Action: Theophylline relaxes bronchial smooth muscle by inhibition of the enzyme phosphodiesterase and suppresses airway responsiveness to stimuli that cause bronchoconstriction.
Indications: Theophylline is used for the long-term management of persistent asthma that is unresponsive to beta-agonists or inhaled corticosteroids.
Nursing Considerations: Nurses should remind patients that xanthine derivatives are not rescue medications.
Side Effects/Adverse Effects: Theophylline can cause nausea, vomiting, CNS stimulation, nervousness, and insomnia.[1]
Patient Teaching & Education: Patients should be sure to take medications as prescribed at appropriate intervals. They should avoid irritants, caffeine, and drink fluids to help thin secretions. Patients will need serum blood levels tested every six to twelve months.[2]
Now let’s take a closer look at the medication grid on theophylline in Table 5.14.[3],[4],[5]
Table 5.14 Theophylline Medication Grid
Class/Subclass |
Prototype/Generic |
Administration Considerations |
Therapeutic Effects |
Adverse/Side Effects |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Xanthine | theophylline | Avoid caffeine
Requires evaluation of therapeutic blood level to prevent toxicity |
Long-term treatment of chronic asthma and COPD unresponsive to other treatment | GI: Nausea and vomiting
CNS stimulation Nervousness and insomnia |
- Frandsen, G., & Pennington, S. (2018). Abrams’ clinical drug: Rationales for nursing practice (11th ed.). Wolters Kluwer. ↵
- uCentral from Unbound Medicine. https://www.unboundmedicine.com/ucentral ↵
- This work is a derivative of Pharmacology Notes: Nursing Implications for Clinical Practice by Gloria Velarde licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 ↵
- Frandsen, G., & Pennington, S. (2018). Abrams’ clinical drug: Rationales for nursing practice (11th ed.). Wolters Kluwer. ↵
- This work is a derivative of DailyMed by U.S. National Library of Medicine in the Public Domain. ↵
