In spite of the availability and widespread use of a number of effective medications, the frequency of severe attacks of asthma bronchiale including those with fatal outcome has not decreased. One possible reason for this is the delay in therapeutic intervention of up to 30 minutes resulting either from transport time to a hospital or from the response time of mobile ambulance services. Treatment delays are also frequent co-factors for decreased well-being in non-emergency cases. Prompt initiation of countermeasures, regardless of time or place, can only be guaranteed when the patient himself is capable of carrying them out with the same expertise as his attending physician. Toward this end, a model patient-training program was investigated. The didactic goal of the training was to make the patient an expert in his chronic disease. The medical goal of the training was to improve the quality of a complex long-term therapy and with it, the patient's well-being and quality of life. The content of the training corresponded largely to that contained in a lecture series for medical students or physicians on the same subject. Style and choice of words (avoidance or explanation of medical terminology) was of course adapted to the lay-status of the patients.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)