Continuing medications for asthma required for benefits
Improvements in terms of asthma management are possible only if children whose asthma improved while being administered with steroids for a continuing period of time continue with such practice, according to results from a comprehensive childhood asthma study.
The researchers said children (now in their late teenage years) being administered with steroids during the trial were not able to show differences in terms of asthma control with the children receiving placebo.
The study appeared 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, said that asthma can be managed effectively among children as they grow older as airways grow with age to become bigger.
