Regular asthma drug administration brings continuing benefits
Children whose asthma improved while taking steroid drugs for many years cannot expect the same benefits after stopping the use, as per new results from a comprehensive childhood asthma study.
The study, which was published in advance online publication of the Journal of Pediatrics, revealed that children using steroids during the trial and now in their late teens showed no differences in terms of asthma control when compared with the children who received the placebo.
From News-Medical.Net:
Inhaled corticosteroids such as budesonide have been shown to be the most effective form of anti-inflammatory treatment for asthma by controlling symptoms and improving pulmonary function. Results from the original CAMP trial showed that using budesonide twice daily led to fewer hospitalizations and urgent care visits, fewer days in which additional asthma medications were needed and a reduced need for albuterol, a fast-acting drug for relief of acute asthma symptoms. Using nedocromil twice daily reduced urgent care visits and courses of oral steroids for severe symptoms, but did not affect the number of hospitalizations, symptoms or airway responsiveness.
Although the patients had fewer symptoms five years after stopping the daily medication, Strunk cautions that doesn’t mean that they can stop using asthma medications altogether or that their asthma is cured.
Robert C. Strunk, M.D., a Washington University pediatrician at St. Louis Children’s Hospital and lead author of the study, remarked that kids with asthma can experience better control as they grow older.
Tags: Albuterol, asthma, budesonide, corticosteroids, placebo, steroid drugs
Recent Comments