Asthma is a chronic allergic airway disorder posing a serious public health problem in countries throughout the world. Although no cure for asthma has yet been found, appropriate management leads to control of the disorder. The recommendations in this article are based on evidence-based therapy including controlled clinical trials. Also, they link the rationale for the therapies to the scientific understanding of asthma. Medications for the management of adult asthma are used to reverse and prevent symptoms, airflow limitations, airway inflammation, and airway remodeling and include both controllers and relievers. This review presents the stepwise approach to therapy to achieve and maintain control of asthma. The efficacy of the stepwise approach to asthma care needs to be validated in large groups of asthma patients. The therapeutic modality should be selected based on the severity of asthma in individual patients, the availability of anti-asthma medications, conditions of the health care system, and the individual patients' social, family, and economic circumstances.