Sustained benefits possible only with continued asthma medications
According to new results from a comprehensive childhood asthma study, children whose asthma improved while being administered with steroids for many years may not be able witness the same or better improvements after steroid treatment has been discontinued.
The researchers remarked that children who were on steroids and now in their late teens showed no differences in terms of asthma control with the children receiving placebo. This study was published in the Journal of Pediatrics.
From Sciencedaily.com:
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 as children with asthma grow older, they start managing their asthma in a better manner as their airways get bigger.
Tags: asthma, asthma control, Steroid use, Steroids
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