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The base formulae for 急性发作 as in the textbook:

1. Cold Asthma: 射干麻黄汤 or 小青龙汤

2. Hot Asthma: 定喘汤 or 越婢加半夏汤

3. Cold Covering Hot Asthma: 厚朴麻黄汤 or 小青龙加石膏汤

My summary of it is as below:

1. Cold Asthma: Use 小青龙汤 as base formula.

• Throw away 桂枝 if there aren’t any exterior symptoms (this is what 射干麻黄汤 did)
• Add 款冬花 and 紫菀 to help 止咳 and 降气 (this is what 射干麻黄汤 did)
• Change 干姜 to 生姜 when internal cold is not so severe (this is what 射干麻黄汤 did)

2. Hot Asthma (i.e. internal heat):

1. For a hot asthma is does not display too much heat: Use 定喘汤 .
2. For a hotter asthma
   1. With exterior symptoms: Use 小青龙汤 (麻黄、桂枝、甘草 all 3liang) as base formula with 石膏 (2liang) which is enough to get rid of heat, but not so much that it hinders treatment of exterior symptoms
   2. Without exterior symptoms: Add more 麻黄 (6liang instead of 3liang i.e. double)石膏 (8liang instead of 2liang i.e. quadruple - ala 越婢加半夏汤) which blasts the internal heat out
   3. Add 厚朴 if there is 胸满