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I was first prescribed theophylin in the late 1970s when it was a top line medicine for asthma, and was on it until about 2 years ago when my doctor told me I was one of only three of his patients still on it.  Medicines like Advair and Symbicort or Flovent or Pulmicort are the new top line medicines for controlling asthma long term.  One of the advantages of these new meds is side effects are rare so long as you rinse after each use.  One of the reasons theophyllin is frowned upon (as I will attest to) is that it has some undesirable side effects.  Theophyllin is still available, but it is usually only used for extremely difficult to manage asthma cases.