How do medications work to treat bronchitis?

Acute? Chronic?: Acute bronchitis is caused by infection, usually either bacterial or viral. If there is a bacterial infection, antibiotics are used to eradicate it. Chronic bronchitis, a form of copd, is typically treated with bronchodilators to relieve bronchospasm and steroid inhalers to reduce inflammation as well as smoking cessation to slow disease progression and prevent further complications.