Although acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) has been the focus of extensive basic science and clinical research over the past 40 years,its pathogenesis is not clear.The therapies for ARDS have been not consensus.In addition to the lung-protective ventilatory strategies,effective pharmacologic therapy for ARDS remains extremely limited and still continue to explore and study.This paper reviews the cunent pharmacotherapies to treat ARDS,including neuromuscular blockers,corticosteroids,neutrophil elastase inhibitor,antioxidants,granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor,β2 adrenergic receptor agonists,pulmonary vasodilators.