Steroid-oriented medications no use for children with lower respiratory infections

When it comes to treating a common viral lower respiratory infection in infants, bronchiolitis, steroid medications are not effective in terms of ensuring improvements in the level of respiratory symptoms or preventing hospitalization.

The finding was revealed by the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) and appeared in an issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.

From News-Medical.Net:

“This study provides solid evidence to guide treatment of this common illness,” said Joseph Zorc, M.D., an emergency physician at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and a lead co-investigator. “Current recommendations suggest that simple supportive care is the best available treatment for bronchiolitis. This study will help resolve some of the uncertainty for physicians and families and prevent unnecessary side effects.”

Both physicians note that glucocorticoid medications still play an important role in other respiratory illnesses of childhood such as asthma and croup. They point out these medications are not the androgenic steroids sometimes abused by athletes, and that the side effects seen with long-term steroid use are not a risk in the short-course treatments used for croup and asthma attacks.

Nathan Kuppermann, M.D., a professor of emergency medicine and pediatrics at the University of California, Davis, chair of the PECARN network’s steering committee, and the senior investigator of the study, said that the authority of a research network like PECARN is highlighted and reaffirmed when it comes to resolving the difficult-to-answer questions.

Tags: androgenic steroids, bronchiolitis, glucocorticoid, steroid, Steroid use, Steroids

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.